PCG on Churchill, Empire, and the Church of God Family Empire

 

The Philadelphia Church of God has reposted a long article that Gerald Flurry wrote in 2021 about the current quasi-savior/hero of the Philadelphia Church of God, Winston Churchill. The PCG has written more articles, preached more sermons, read more books, and mentioned Winston Churchill's name more in the last couple of years than they have Jesus Christ in the last several years. 

Now that Queen Elizabeth has died and Prince Charles is now King Charles III, COG false prophets and false leaders are whipping themselves into a British Israelite frenzy and see these events as a sure sign of the end times. Charles, as King, will soon hand over the throne to some imaginary creature that Armstorngism has created that they believe is coming back to sit on the Stone of Scone unless you are Gerald Flurry and his creature is coming back to sit on Herbert Armstrong's supposed prayer rock.

As usually with Flurrryoism, they take things to the extreme. They see Churchill's respect for the British Empire as a sure sign that there will be a Church of God family empire in the freakish Flurry kingdom to come. The PCG believes they will become gods and goddesses in the Family of God Empire where they will be teaching Churchill, Queen Elizabeth, King Charles, and everyone else the truth of Armstrongism.

As the true King of the God Family here on earth and to come, Gerald Flurry self-appointed himself to be the King here on earth preserving the truth once delivered. 

King Flurry writes:

The greatest empire this world has ever seen was the British Empire. It was the largest in history, and it was also the best. It was flawed, as all human governments have been. But in terms of what it did, not just for British subjects but for the world, no empire has come close to the British Empire.

God made that empire great. He did so through miracles, through laws based in part on His laws, and through men and women who loved and sacrificed and built Britain, hoping that they could make the whole world a better place for future generations. 

 

Winston S. Churchill was born as that empire approached its peak. As a young man, he threw himself into serving Britain, writing, fighting wars, and emerging as a political leader. When the empire experienced its sorest trial, a desperate nation turned to him for help. God used him to save Britain and Western civilization.

Yet Churchill also lived to see the British Empire enter its fatal decline. 

 

God is not against empires. In fact, He Himself is building an unparalleled empire—an empire that will eclipse the British Empire infinitely: the God Family Empire. 

 

God is building a family, and the emphasis is on family. But using the word “empire” expands our scope and the magnitude and majesty of our calling and our future.

Christians for over 2,000 years have understood the scope and magnitude of their calling rests securely in Jesus Christ and NOT in being gods and goddesses in some superduper god family to come where they will be ruling nations and teaching the world about Herbert Armstrong. Christ, after completing his job of bringing the kingdom into fruition will be without a job and will be sent off to Grover Beach where he will have a tough time convincing Beto Bob Thiel that he was not a prophet, while King Flurry and his merry band of gods and goddesses rule the world. I may be jesting a little here, but this is 90% of what Flurryism teaches.

Flurryism sees the coming Kingdom as a power structure that is an empire. Empire designates power and kingly positions, something that Flurry and his minions covet on a minute-by-minute basis.

The British Empire can teach us some outstanding lessons. Understanding more about Churchill and the empire he loved will help us understand and love the empire of God.

When God and Christ speak about the "kingdom to come" it is more about a "kindom" to come. A world filled with grace, mercy, and justice with no one lording themselves over others. A kindom where Christ himself sits down on a river bank and communes with people. COG leaders despise this kind of kindom to come. They need powerful positions in God's empire because they expect to be rulers, teachers, and gods and goddesses. Christ is going to spoil all of that for them and they can't stand that.

"What motivated Churchill? The British Empire!" 

"Britons like Churchill worked and sacrificed for something far greater than themselves. They believed not only in the glory of the empire but also what it had done for the world and what it could do for the future.

When everyone unites their efforts to support the high purpose of a civilizing empire, it can accomplish amazing things. 

 

You and I need this same motivating vision to do great deeds for the God Family Empire!" 

 

"The empire was central to Churchill’s whole life. Obviously he was human and made mistakes; I’m not trying to defend those. But he certainly was a great man for the British Empire.

Today, we are raising up the ruins of the God Family Empire. And we are the only people on Earth who really understand Winston Churchill’s thinking about empire because we have a dimension to add to it that Mr. Churchill needed. In fact, it’s a dimension this whole world needs!"

There is absolutely NOTHING that Flurry has that the world needs to hear. There is nothing that Lil'Stevie has to say that the world needs to hear. There is no "missing dimension" that the PCG has that anyone cares about, certainly not Jesus!

King Flurry goes on to write more glorifying the British Empire around the world so that's can write this about Herbert Armstrong establishing empire, with nary a word about Jesus.

The God Family Empire should be “the natural order of things” for us! We need to build that kind of attitude, where this Empire is just natural. Many of us have grown up with it! If we didn’t, then we need to study hard until we know it from beginning to end. We need to know all about the man who “restored all things” on Earth (Matthew 17:11). In a sense, we all must “grow up” in that empire Herbert W. Armstrong established. Really dig that history out and absorb it. As God says about the little book, we need to “eat it up” and digest it (Revelation 10:9), and absolutely know our Bibles. Mr. Armstrong studied the Bible like no man I’ve ever read about. He dug and made sure to prove everything he believed. And he was willing to risk everything in the process.

Churchill grew up with the empire and loved it, and he had good reason for loving it. He didn’t love it simply because it was powerful. He loved it for what it did, and the suffering it saved the world from. This had everythingto do with making him a great leader! 

 

His example shows how we must build this natural order of things and love the God Family Empire with more passion than he had for the British Empire.

Why is the lust for power in the Church of God used as such a strong motivator?

King Flurry continues describing this lust for power:

Anthony Froude wrote in Oceana, “A man … who is part of an institution, who has devoted himself to a cause or is a citizen of an imperial power—expands to the scope and fullness of the larger organism …. His thoughts are wider, his interests less selfish, his ambitions ampler and nobler. … A great nation makes great men; a small nation makes little men.” Likewise, a great church will make great men and women of all of us, too. It gets us away from selfishness. We can so easily become wrapped up in ourselves and fail to reach out as God wants us to! 

 

“True imperialism develops manhood,” Churchill said. That is politically incorrect, but true! An empire rooted in law and morality creates quality men and women! Churchill himself was a real man, and the empire made him a real leader, one of the greatest in the end time. The right kind of empire—true imperialism—builds real men and real leaders. 

 

This spirit of empire makes leaders stronger, and it turns followers into leaders.

Churchill, Emmert wrote, considered “the fostering of civilization as the highest purpose of empire,” and believed “that empire civilizes both the ruled and their rulers.” That is infinitely truer of the God Family Empire! It civilizes us! It makes both the rulers and the ruled more spiritual! The whole Family grows spiritual because it is ruled by the Father and the Son. Empire does that.

This is the Father’s Empire! And we are to become perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect (Matthew 5:48). The more we comprehend this Empire, the wider will be our thoughts and the less selfish our interests. Our ambitions will be ampler and nobler if we fill our lives with this Family Empire and make it the natural order of things. We will become real leaders!

King Flurry imagines his church, and his alone, as soon-coming great teachers of LAW. Rules, regulations, and commands will be the rule of the day. Once Jesus is in Gover Beach, he will not be around to dispense any grace, justice, and mercy to his people. King Gerald has other plans. Whip out that rod of iron and subject people to the Empire of God! Gerald Is King! Obey his commands!

The God Family Empire has a message of law. This Church is delivering a message around the globe that’s going to straighten out all the problems in this world forever! That is quite an empire!

Sounds more like hell on earth if any COG member is ruling! 

Did you know that Herbert Armstrong's book The Missing Dimension in Sex will be used in the soon-coming empire to teach people the truth about sex? That book, as bad as it was, sits right up there next to Mystery of the Ages as the main cross-over books into the Kingdom of God where they will be placed in the New Jerusalem right next to the Bible.

We need to speak to the world about why marriage and why family. For example, our book The Missing Dimension in Sex can straighten out warped thinking and correct the evil being taught in Israel today. That wonderful book Mr. Armstrong wrote was right out of the mind of God.

Even beyond that, we need to show people through our personal examples and in our families how to live a life of hope forever! That is serving as an empire with the very truth of God. That is the positive purpose of an empire!

Holy Hanna! Can you imagine a COG leader and COG families using their personal examples of what families in the empire to come should be like? Will parents be encouraged to take their children to the Jerusalem mall and drop them off so that staff can take care of them? COG family values ROCK!

King Flurry goes on to tell his dwindling faithful that their calling into power in the empire is their top priority. Following Jesus is NOT part of the equation. Worshipping empire is.

Our calling demands unwavering support and dedication to the God Family Empire. Jesus Christ said, You may have to give up your physical family, but you’d better be willing to die for your spiritual family! This calling may require sacrificing your own life (Luke 14:26). At baptism, we agreed to those terms. So many great men and women of God have had to sacrifice their lives for this.

We must view the God Family Empire the way Churchill saw the British Empire. God wants to expand our ambitions and make them of the right kind. We need to love this Empire so much that if someone were to tell us to give it up—even with the threat of being thrown into a fiery furnace—we would refuse without a moment’s hesitation!

King FLurry says his followers need to be ready to die for this empire to come. Don't worry about dying standing up for Jesus, that's too wishy-washy for further gods and goddesses. Dying for power and law is more important. 

We really need to love this Family of God Empire—to the point of being willing to die for it if we must! We need an exalted love for this wonderful Family Empire that God is building, and build that vision within our minds!

King Flurry complains about how 95% of the COG lost their lust for power to part of the empire to come: 

Look at the Church of God. If you are merely a little church here in Edmond, Oklahoma, or a little church in Eugene, Oregon, then if you turn inward, you will go nowhere. People who think like that have little minds. That’s not the way God thinks!

Ninety-five percent of God’s people have lost God’s vision of empire and have degenerated into selfishness. They are squabbling about government and struggling to keep their churches intact, but they are doomed to fail. Lose the God Family Empire vision and the government of God, and you won’t amount to any kind of success.

Here is the only place Jesus is mentioned in this incredibly long article by King Flurry:

Churchill will be among the billions whom God resurrects in the Great White Throne Judgment. Under Christ the King, the God Family Empire will teach Churchill about the throne of David and add that dimension to his knowledge. I have a feeling he will come to see that his life was not a failure at all. But it could have been far more successful had he known about David’s throne and how Jesus Christ would return to rule from that throne!

King Flurry's "christ" is one of power and not one filled with grace and mercy.  COG leaders despise grace and mercy.

King Flurry also mentions his other hero of the Church of God, William Shakespeare:

And now we have the very throne of God in this Church! And we are going to be kings and priests in the God Family Empire! We need to be thinking like Shakespeare, where a single country is too small for us. God wants us to think “beyond the borders of Israel.” That is the way God thinks. Our Empire is the whole world and beyond!

Think like Shakespeare, absolutely, but heaven forbid if you think like wishy-washy effeminate Jesus. If you HAVE TO mention the dude at least call him CHRIST (the super masculine he-man god that effeminate COG leaders need to look up to).

Build your love and passion for the God Family Empire!

If you feel inclined, check out the long article to see how many times Jesus is mentioned. You can do it on one hand, even if you have two amputated fingers. 

Churchill and the God Family Empire