Guess What PCG Says Is The Greatest Thing The World Needs Today?

 

When it comes to the Philadelphia Church of God and its proclamations, nothing should surprise us anymore. The focus is never on Jesus, but on sacred rocks, Irish dance, Gerald Flurry's visions, breaking up families and proclaiming Gerald Flurry as King.

Today they featured an article on their website that is from 2003 and written by the King himself.

It discusses the MOST IMPORTANT thing in the entire universe that PCG is to proclaim. Is it Jesus, his words and what he has accomplished, or something else? This is a Church of God after all, so forget about the focus being upon Jesus.

This focus is God's most supreme goal facing humanity today. Without this goal, humanity will never understand anything about salvation! 

This must be God’s supreme goal for His Philadelphian elect today. 

So what is that goal? Many of you probably already know. It is the promotion of the most god-awful book ever written. A book so bad and sooooooooo incredibly boring that most COG members have never completed it and a book that they have stuck in a box in the garage or on the top shelf of a bookcase where it will never be looked at again. Yet humanity's salvation is dependant upon this book.

The greatest single gift we can give to the world is Mystery of the Ages. Let’s think and work like God and give it to “the largest audience possible”!

Who knew that the single greatest gift to the world was a frigging book! Not Jesus. Nope! But a stupid, poorly written book. A book filled with so many doctrinal errors and outright deceptive lies that it should be dumped in the trash just like the Worldwide Church of God did in the 1990s when it hauled tens of thousands of copies of the book and other literature in the Glendale dump.

Even Bruce Lyon in Servant News panned the book.

A Mixture of Truth and Error

“All teaching came from Christ through the apostles… God’s Church today, as in the first century, receives its teachings from the living Christ, through an apostle, just as in AD 31.” (Page 350)

Considering the plain errors noted in a number of the teachings of this book and the previous book (The Incredible Human Potential), something is terribly wrong here. I’ll trust the Bible over Herbert Armstrong any day. Sure, I could go through this book and list a dozen or more good things. However, I did not come to praise this book, but to bury it.

I honestly thought we had allowed these two books, Mystery of the Ages and The Incredible Human Potential, to die natural deaths after they were both withdrawn by the WCG about 1990. They were rarely, if ever, referred to even before 1990 in my experience. I assumed that was because the numerous obvious errors were plain to many—especially to educated elders. 

When books have upwards of ten percent error, then they are as much or more trouble as they are worthwhile.

In the categories of unproven statements and opinions stated as fact (many of which I believe are easily disproved), along with information that is simply erroneous, I estimate that The Incredible Human Potential is 30% or more flawed (and not just chapters 4 and 5!). I estimate that Mystery of the Ages is at least 25% flawed. I have only shown some of the problems in this book.

As a whole, these books have way too many holes!

When truth is greatly interlaced with errors, the credibility of the whole suffers and the credibility of those who promote it. Even unconverted people can often see some of the false concepts, scriptural and historical, noted above.

The mixture of good and error in these books is strongly intertwined. Several themes and concepts Mr. Armstrong weaves throughout both books are false or unsupported by the Bible (yet stated as fact).

My desire is simple: let’s get rid of obvious biblical errors and other misinformation (1 Thessalonians 5:21), and let’s not be unbiblically cult-like in any way.

God was never dependent on Herbert Armstrong. Nor does our salvation depend on Mr. Armstrong in any way; it never did.

If grossly inaccurate books are retained as beneficial and recommended, then continual and needless controversy and confusion will result. This is already the case.

Truer words could never be spoken than what Bruce Lyon stated above (highlighted in yellow).

God did not need Herbert Armstrong. He does not need Bob Thiel, Gerald Flurry, Dave Pack, Vic Kubik, Gerald Weston, Bill Watson, or any of the other splinter group leaders out there to do His supposed "work". 

COG groups need to stop focusing upon "grossly inaccurate books" and grossly inaccurate teachings of people like Thiel, Pack, and Flurry. Their words are nothing more than stinking dung on a steaming pile of manure.

 

"Easy Peasy" APistol David C Pack Knows What UFOs Really Are

 I made the effort to listen to Sermon 305 but same old, same old. More rambling, scripture mining, and cobbling the unrelated into the irrelevant, signifying nothing.  He does like the phrase "Easy Peasy" when something is obvious so here is the takeaway.

UFOs are clearly demons preparing our minds for what is to come. It is no coincidence this comes up just before everything Dave understands is about to come to pass.  

Doug Winnail Actually Has A Profitable Word For Once

 

We have been ragging on Doug Winnail's annual Friday night beat down of LCG members and things they have constantly been doing wrong. Perhaps LCG has have been paying attention to the comments by LCG members here because for the last three weeks Doug's Friday night message has been relatively positive.

0. Be Prepared! We are living in increasingly uncertain times, with unstable economies, job insecurity, storms, floods, droughts, and sudden terrorist activities. Due to our modern dependence on technology, these dramatic events can cause serious disruptions in our daily lives—thus we need to plan ahead for unexpected emergencies. This is reflected in the Boy Scout motto: Be Prepared! Solomon offered the same advice when he wrote, “Ponder the path of your feet”—think about where you are going and how to get there (Proverbs 4:26). Solomon also observed, “A prudent man foresees evil [danger] and hides himself [takes refuge], but the simple [the naïve and unsuspecting] pass on and are punished [they have to face the consequences of not being prepared]” (Proverbs 22:3). God’s Church has long encouraged members to prepare for unexpected emergencies—keep a supply of bottled water, a stock of non-perishable food, extra vitamins, first aid supplies, extra batteries for flashlights, a battery-powered radio, a camp stove or heating device, etc.—things that may be needed if normal public services are disrupted. While God’s people will look to Him for their ultimate protection, we also need to do our part to be prepared—so we are not taken by surprise.

   Have a profitable Sabbath, Douglas S. Winnail

Gerald Weston on the Continuing Mind-Boggling Growth of the LCG

 

Remember the days when Herbert Armstrong and others gloated about the thousands of viewers they had to broadcasts and the thousands of live people who showed up for personal appearance campaigns and other speaking events the church-sponsored? It was literally in the thousands, and quite a few of those people ended up joining the church.

But this is 2021 and we have the Living Church of God bragging over the 17  people who show up. Of course, this was to hear Jonathan McNair. Jonathan McNair! Sigh. 

Mr. Wallace Smith was in Indianapolis, Indiana, last Sabbath for a Tomorrow’s World Presentation. Twenty guests and 31 members attended in person. Mr. Jonathan McNair conducted a TWP in Crossville, Tennessee, for 17 guests and 17 members who attended in person. While we see continual loosening of COVID-19 restrictions here in the United States, it is not the same elsewhere. Mr. Rajan Moses reports that Malaysia has gone into complete lockdown from June 1 to June 14. Since these lockdowns are often extended, he requests prayers so that they can plan for the Feast. Also pray for Mr. Ephraim Abok, one of our Kenyan ministers, who is in hospital with pneumonia.—Gerald Weston

Why Aren't COG Members Allowed To Own Canadians?

This never gets old.

 The same logic that COG leaders pick and choose from.

In her radio show, Dr Laura Schlesinger said that, as an observant Orthodox Jew, homosexuality is an abomination according to Leviticus 18:22, and cannot be condoned under any circumstance. 

The following response is an open letter to Dr. Laura, penned by a US resident, which was posted on the Internet. It's funny, as well as informative:

Dear Dr. Laura:

Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law. I have learned a great deal from your show, and try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination ... End of debate.

I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some other elements of God's Laws and how to follow them.

1. Leviticus 25:44 states that I may possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighbouring nations. 

A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can't I own Canadians?

2. I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her? 

  

3. I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of Menstrual uncleanliness - Lev.15: 19-24. 

 

The problem is how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offence. 

 

4. When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odour for the Lord - Lev.1:9. 

 

The problem is my neighbours. They claim the odour is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them? 

 

5. I have a neighbour who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly states he should be put to death. 

 

Am I morally obligated to kill him myself, or should I ask the police to do it? 

 

6. A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination, Lev. 11:10, it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don't agree. Can you settle this? Are there 'degrees' of abomination? 

 

7. Lev. 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle-room here? 

 

8. Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev. 19:27. How should they die? 

 

9. I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves? 

 

10. My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev.19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? Lev.24:10-16. Couldn't we just burn them to death at a private family affair, like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev. 20:14) 

 

I know you have studied these things extensively and thus enjoy considerable expertise in such matters, so I'm confident you can help.

Thank you again for reminding us that God's word is eternal and unchanging.

(It would be a damn shame if we couldn't own a Canadian)

Why Do COG Leaders Set Themselves Up As Our Intermediaries?

Someone made a comment on here recently about how COG leaders have set themselves up as intermediaries between their members and the god they claim to follow.

Most of them, but not all, will bellow that they do no such thing, but in actuality they are.

All of them have made the claim that they are the one true church carrying on in the footsteps of Herbert Armstrong. As leaders of the one true church, they have deliberately maligned all other COG's and delegated them into lesser than status or actual Laodiceans.

They all claim exclusive knowledge through dreams, visions, nightmares, or whatever other entities they channel their "knowledge" that comes to them through.

Dave Pack has been preaching a 300+ sermon series on the visions and dreams he has that lead him to interpret scripture to prove his creature he calls "jesus" will be returning three times and that its imminent return is always days or weeks away. He bellows that no other church has this knowledge and no other church has access to God and his "christ" unless they are members of the Restored Church of God.

Bob Thiel does this by claiming his legitimacy through dreams and visions he claims he has had along with a couple other mentally unstable people in the Australasia regions of the world. Never have we seen a more pompous self-indulgent leader than we have in Bob. He has the exclusive doctrines and teachings that only he understands and repeats ad museum that only he has the right interpretations to scripture. His endless diatribes that all COG members need to recognize him and his work, and join in that work, in order to know the "correct" time to flee to  Petra/Pella or some other hellhole he expects his followers to go to are beyond pale. No one knows the right time to flee except him. Therefore your salvation is dependant upon his interpretations, dreams, visions, and nightmares.

Gerald Flurry has set himself up as King of the Church of God because he has now in his possession a dirty old rock from the hills of Oregan that he claims his creature he calls "jesus" will return and sit upon. No other COG out there has this revealed knowledge and therefore are Laodiceans and are cut off from God. Only through Flurry can salvation be attained.

UCG, LCG, COGWA, CGI, and many of the other minor COG groups also claim that they are the only ones with the real truth. Most of them no longer state that publicly in order to appear more "loving" towards other COG members, but corner a diehard evangelist or minister and they will tell you that their group is the only COG doing the work and that they are the correct path to salvation.

COG members have been duped for so long by this kind of reasoning that they have turned into gullible sheep who sit there week after week believing that their leader is the right, correct, and one true leader of the end time COG, and because of that, their salvation is in his hands. Most will not admit that until you push them as to why they have not left for another group or left the COG entirely. They have been frightened into following a bunch of spiritual frauds that only care for the members as long as they give money.

COG members believe this because they have never heard that much about Jesus preached. Oh sure, they will talk about the veil in the temple being torn in half, and in the next breathe tell you that every damn law in the old covenant is still in force today, all except for the ones they conveniently don't want to follow and they always have an excuse as to why they don't. The new covenant is always shoved to the rear burner in order to promote the law and other nonessentials.

Ask most Christians today who their intermediary is and they will name Jesus and the work accomplished and finished on the cross. Most COG members cannot do that. They need the revelations from their leaders, their writings, and visions to tell them what to believe.

There is only one intermediary and it is NOT Bob Thiel, Dave Pack, Gerald Flurry, or ANY of the other COG leaders or corporations. Bob, Gerald, Dave, and the others are not necessary for anyone's salvation and no one will ever attain it through them. It is an impossibility.

Crackpot Self Appointed Gentile COG Prophet Says Yellowstone Will Blow During Tribulation

Our favorite crackpot COG prophet got into a royal snit the other day when he took offense to people on this blog calling British Israelism a myth, He was not happy and penned copy and pasted the longest and most boring stuff imaginable to prove it is all true, but did reveal that he is a Gentile just like his African followers. No, Bobbie is not self-identifying as Black, but he declares he is a genuine Gentile.

Today he has his naturopathic knickers in a holistic twist over droughts in the West and the warnings that scientists shave been making for decades about some future event where the Yellowstone volcano might blow up and the Rotorua volcano in New Zealand doing the same. These two volcanoes are in countries that his myth of British Israelism identifies and "Israelite" nations and therefore doomed to damnation and destruction. What better way to wipe out those grievous  non-Continuing Church of God members than to incinerate them with a massive volcano! I can hear the sizzling of the truth deniers and sinners right now!

You are expected to believe his doom and gloom schtick because he has personally visited those sites.

Gentile Bob gets all giddy when he constantly mentions this:

The Bible connects sin and drought. Scripture shows that water/rain/drought will become a problem for various disobedient peoples:

He never mentions the fact that in the states with drought problems that there are false prophets and false teachers in the Churches of God promoting non-biblical lies. Perhaps his god is angry over all of the current crop of COG liars and is punishing those states and countries because of these men? Is Bob the cause for the California drought? Using his "reasoning" then YES, he is!

Oh, and there are earthquakes in CA and the West! Who knew! We need a prophet like Gentile Bob and an Idahoan conspiracy theorist, Michael Snyder,to tell us so with this blaring headline:

The Shaking In California Is Getting WORSE As Hundreds And Hundreds Of Earthquakes Cause Alarm On The West Coast

The Gentile Bobster hysterical continues with this:

Jesus warned about a time of earthquakes, famines, and troubles:

8 … And there will be earthquakes in various places, and there will be famines and troubles. These are the beginnings of sorrows. (Mark 13:8)

Water shortages can lead to famines.

We are in the time Jesus called the beginning of sorrows.

Of course, it is not just North America that could be affected by troubles, famines, volcanoes or earthquakes.

Consider also the following related to New Zealand:

The North Island of New Zealand is chock full of volcanoes—and big volcanoes at that. No less than four major calderas sit in the Taupo Volcanic Zone (TVZ) that stretches from White Island in the north to Ruapehu in the south. One of the most violent volcanic eruptions in human history took place in ~186 AD from Lake Taupo. That rhyolitic (high silica) eruption produced an ash plume that may have towered 50 kilometers (164,000 feet!) over the caldera, what we call an “ultraplinian” eruption (and anything that is “ultra” has to be big). More recently, Tarawera in the Okataina caldera erupted in 1886 in one of the most explosive basaltic (low silica) eruptions on record that had ash plume that reached 10 kilometers (~32,000 feet) and buried a number of towns along with blasting a new valley out of the landscape. The North Island is definitely a place where volcanic unrest is taken seriously.

After tossing in Jesus as an afterthought, Gentile Bob continues by letting us know that he has physically stood on top of NZ's volcano! Damn! It will blow for sure now! Everything self-appointed COG leaders have attached themselves to end up having problems. If I were in NZ I would leave the country right now!  Gentile Bob has doomed you to utter destruction. Don't go to Australia though, he plans on seeing them destroyed too and you don't want to be in that mess either.

You must remember that since Gentile Bob STOOD on top of this volcano he is now an AUTHORITY on the matter. Just like he has been in the Vatican and is now a world-renowned authority on Satan's Chair.

Gentile Bob continues:

For years, I have warned that the USA could be hit with a ‘perfect storm’ of events and disaster that could weaken it during the ‘beginning of sorrows’ so that it would be easier for it to be taken over at the start of the Great Tribulation. Now, we see that the space agency NASA sees Yellowstone as a serious risk. And while some will scoff and say that the probability is too low, less statistically ‘probable’ events have happened. Plus, because of the decline in morality in the USA, destructive events are going to hit it.

I have seen more immorality in the Churches of God than I have in my neighbors.  So where does that leave us? Are our nations suffering because of the immoral COG leadership, who should be setting the example and do not? Are Bob's grievous sins causing CA problems? (Watch Gentile Bob pull a Meredithism, when he too declares he has not committed a major sin since baptism or self-appointing himself as a COG leader).

Gentile Bob then ends with this:

Things will not remain as they have. There is a serious drought. Yellowstone could erupt. Elements will melt. Get your spiritual life in order. 

 

Life can end suddenly and unexpectedly.

For COG members this is a constant worry. In the back of their minds, they have been conditioned to believe that they are not ready, that their sins have caused Christ's delay in his coming, and most importantly, that they are NOT worthy. This is what COG false prophets like Gentile Bob, Gerald Flurry, and Dave Pack do. They denigrate their members and make them feel worthless.

Real followers of Jesus are secure with their standing with God and don't let their lives be consumed by false prophecies and mindless rants of mentally deranged COG leaders. Their standing is secure in the One more solid than any COG leader.

PCG's Wayne Turgeon Gets His Comeuppance From Swiss TSA Agents

 

Wayne Turgeon, of the Philadelphia Church of God, recently got his comeuppance, though, like Bob Thiel, he looks at this as persecution. Turgeon is well known to PCG members and exCOG members as being one of the more abusive ministers in the PCG.

It was hilarious to read the following report on Exit and Support Network about Turgeon's latest exploiters which this time let him know the world does not revolve around him or his opinions. Just like Bob Thiel, Turgeon went and threw a self-righteous fit that he was being persecuted. Then he had the audacity to tell PCG members that hearing his story should inspire them to pray for the ministers in PCG around the world as they face persecution.

There is not one single minister in any of the Churches of God who has suffered any persecution for what they believe. Not one!

It is so funny to watch COG ministers pitch fits when someone stands up to their boastful arrogant personalities. They whine like little babies.

Wayne Turgeon has preached in the past about how members need to behave in certain ways–obedient, patient, long suffering, don’t answer back, do as you’re told, especially with those in authority. Exhibit the fruits of the Spirit.

Well, he recently got a taste of his own medicine. In a recent Bible study he took much time at the beginning to tell a convoluted story about his and his wife’s woes of being denied into this one country (that he wouldn’t name but at the end he mentioned the Alps), and how it took hours and days. All because the rules had been changed due to a technicality and how they were stringent. Being grouchy and short-tempered is nothing new for Turgeon, although he had the members laughing at his plight.

He related more and more problems as he went on saying the latter ones were due to his not contacting this country’s Embassy. Turgeon was short-tempered with several of those he had to deal with and who grilled him with many questions.

He explained that the reason he was going through all these details was to inspire them (the brethren listening) to PRAY for God’s ministers–all around the world. “We don’t know how long this (pandemic) is going to last. But I need to meet some members that haven’t been visited in awhile; I need to meet new contacts that want to come into the church.”

He later asked the authorities for a form (it was 4-6 pages long) so he could complain about his treatment. It was in English but he would have to pay to get it translated into whatever language they have. So he eventually tore it up because it would be too much hassle and may make his future visits tougher if he tries to go back and they (the authorities) had it on file.

Then he said he started wondering “if they might be checking out the Philadelphia Church of God” and the names of those members and the prospective members in those countries he hoped to visit. [Oh yes, Wayne, they might find out what is behind PCG and how much money GF is pulling in and you wouldn’t want that.]

At 1 AM some men come out dressed in military uniform with pistols and he said it was a “little bit intimidating.” (These men were carrying a big wad of papers for them to sign, but Turgeon refused because only one page was in English.) He admitted that he “made several frustrating comments” at that time such as: “If I was back in the U. S. I would be calling my lawyer!” (He told the brethren he didn’t have a lawyer) “I have no rights here! This is being run like a Nazi dictatorship!” He said they (he and his wife) could had been sitting there for hours and if they hadn’t gone on back to check on them they could have been sitting there all night! He said it flustered the officers and the main guy’s hands “started shaking.” Turgeon said, “So we must have had them intimidated.”

Then these officers call security and finally, Turgeon and his wife are escorted to the TSA after 1:30 AM and back out to the lobby. His tote bag was swabbed for drugs. There were bright lights, people talking out loud, etc. At 2:30 AM he falls asleep on an end table and is awaken by three armed immigration officers in the lobby of this airport demanding to see his passport. So Turgeon blurts out, “They took my passport!”

At 8 AM, after it being “tortuous” to try and get any kind of rest, they go to Gate 4 where they were told to go. The first men there at this immigration office were friendly and in T-shirts, jeans and sneakers. But two military security guards had to drive them in an armed vehicle right up to the plane and escort them inside the plane. 

 

Turgeon said he believes it will “only get worse not better as time goes on.” He was glad he gave a study on Acts recently (thinking about what the Apostle Paul went through). He emphasized that members are to “Please PRAY for the ministry. We are not going to quit. They are going to have to kill me first.” (This was the fear part.)