The craziness from Gerald Flurry (still missing in action) is shining forth on the recent PCG mailing list with a repost of a 2016 article written by him:
Called to Set the Earth Back on Course
In the first four verses of Psalm 82, God condemns this world for its injustices. “How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah. Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy. Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked” (verses 2-4). God expects us to look after those who can’t take care of themselves: the poor, the fatherless, the needy.
This world is filled with the opposite! “[A]ll the foundations of the earth are out of course”! (verse 5). The entire Earth is experiencing something like a massive earthquake. Its foundations have been shaken out of joint! That means it is doomed to collapse!
How will God solve this problem? “I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children [or sons] of the most High” (verse 6).
How many people understand this? You are gods! The truth of the Bible is that human beings have the potential to be sons of God—to be born into the Family of God! Many other scriptures show that we will look like God the Father and Jesus Christ; we will have the same character they have. Certainly we will be of much lower rank, but nevertheless, a part of the Family of God. God is re-creating Himself in man! That is the purpose of man.
This is what Christ was trying to get across to the Jews of His day. He tried to show them their potential, what their future was, what He created man to be! Yet this message infuriated them—even though it was in their own Bible. He told them the truth, and they did not want to hear it!
This has been the story throughout man’s history: Christ has always tried to show this truth to mankind—but most people reject it. It is incredibly hard for Christ to get people deeply interested in their incredible human potential.
All the foundations of the Earth are out of course! Practically everything is being done the wrong way. Man has reached the point where he can destroy all human life! We ought to be to the point where we see that man cannot solve these problems. Only God can solve them!
God will solve these problems, and He is inviting you to help Him. God the Father and Jesus Christ want to teach you how to live—how to take care of those who are weak and to help solve the world’s problems. They are absolutely going to straighten out this off-kilter world, and they are inviting you to be part of that solution. They want you to take part in solving problems as sons who think and act like God. What a marvelous potential!
You Are Gods
Christ quoted Psalm 82:6, which says, “I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are [sons] of the most High.” That is what you are—all of you are sons of God! You have the potential to be begotten and born into the Family of God. God calls us sons. He never called an angel a begotten son (Hebrews 1:5-8).
When Jesus Christ spoke with the Jews, He Himself said, “You are Gods.”That same Greek word is used over 1,300 times in the New Testament to refer to God Himself. Some scholars argue that the word gods in Psalm 82 could read judges, but Christ wasn’t talking about judges—He was talking about these Jews’ potential to enter the very Family of God. He was refuting their anger over His statement that He, a man, was God. (For more information, request my free booklet John’s Gospel—The Love of God.)
We need to think about this because it is about us helping to rule the Earth and the universe!
Christ continued: “If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?” (John 10:35-36). They were accusing Christ of committing blasphemy by saying He was God. But He was God in the flesh.He came to make it possible for us to enter the God Family.
It would be hard to find a scripture in the Bible more inspiring, uplifting and wonderful than this! It is mind-staggering—you are Gods!
God truly has given us an incredible potential. It is so wonderful, it’s almost more than the mind can comprehend!
Psalm 82 begins, “God standeth in the congregation of the mighty ….” The word God is translated from the Hebrew Elohim. Here is what Mr. Armstrong wrote about this word in Mystery of the Ages: “The Hebrew word translated ‘God’ is Elohim—a noun or a name, plural in form, but normally singular in grammatical usage. It is the same sort of a word as family, church, group—one family consisting of two or more members—one church composed of many members—one group of several persons.
“It is referring to precisely the same Persons, making up or composing the one God, as we found in John 1:1—the Word and God—and each of these two Persons is God. In other words, God is now a family of Persons composed so far of only two—God the Father and Christ the Son.”
Elohim gives you an indication of God’s ultimate plan for family! There are two Persons in that Family now, but God will expand it to include every person who has ever lived who wants it. God created family. He designed marriage to produce children—for parents to be able to, in a sense, re-create themselves by having children—in order to illustrate the reality that He is reproducing Himself! You are Gods—sons of the Most High! Your Incredible Potential—and Your Children’s
Flurry also included this statement further down in his article:
God is creating a family. Malachi 4:5-6 prophesy that God would send an end-time type of Elijah to turn the hearts of fathers to their children, and the hearts of children to their fathers—just before the great and dreadful Day of the Lord. That beautiful family-building work would occur during a time when all of the foundations of the Earth are out of course! Amid this turmoil, God has little children who are turning to their fathers.
Mr. Armstrong fulfilled that role. He taught us wonderfully deep truths about the family and what it all means. He showed us how God works with His Family, protects His Family, and loves His Family—and how He will do anything to help us.
No family in the COG movement was more fractured than Herbert Armstrong's very own family. Both of his daughters stopped attending church. Garner Ted was a philandering power-hungry man who destroyed everyone and everything he was associated with. Herbert Armstrong's legacy was one of abusive outbursts of anger, heretical doctrines, and broken marriages and families. Yep, those are qualifications for being a future god.
15 comments:
“(For more information, request my free booklet John's Gospel – The Love of God”
So much for Herbert W. Armstrong's gospel OF Christ about the soon-coming kingdom of God.
Why didn't Gerald Flurry want to reprint HWA's booklet called What is the TRUE GOSPEL??
Is it because Gerald Flurry immediately suppressed the Great Commission to preach the gospel of the kingdom of God for a witness to all nations, and replaced it with his own “new commission” to rage away against any Worldwide Church of God people who would not go with him and help him to suppress the gospel?
At the PCG's website, Gerald Flurry makes available just some of HWA's books and booklets, which Gerald felt free to edit and change. They are surrounded by a bunch of the silly prophetic junk booklets that Gerald wrote, or, in the case of Malachi's Mess., that Gerald plagiarized and revised a number of times.
This Millerite Preacher wrote, “How many people understand this? You are gods! The truth of the Bible is that human beings have the potential to be sons of God—to be born into the Family of God!”
I take exception to his exegesis of Psalm 82. In Psalm 82, God is not addressing human beings. He is standing before the Great Assembly and addressing Elohim, a class of divine beings lesser than God. He is giving them a message. The Word of God has come to them.
Jesus refers to the incident in the Great Assembly because he is the expression of the Word of God. He is what the Jews referred to as the Memra – the Logos or the Word of God personified. (q.v., https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10618-memra). Jesus was implicitly present as the Memra or Logos in the description given in Psalm 82:1-6.
Jesus stated to the Jews listening to him in John 10:35-36:
“If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?”
Jesus is essentially saying, “I was present in the Great Assembly as the Word of God bearing a message to the Elohim and here I am now bearing a message to you and you are doubting my Divinity.”
This is my exegesis and in my view it has nothing to do with according the estate of being God to human beings. It has to do with the credentials of Jesus Christ as he engaged the Judean audience in the Temple in Solomon's portico. I do believe in Theosis but this does not seem to me to be a scriptural support for that doctrine.
Scout
Note: It is important to understand that some in the many Millerite-derived denominations hold a Subordinationist or Arian view of Jesus. The effect of this is to believe that Jesus is not that great so being God like he is God is quite accessible.
Flurry being alive still, is almost getting to be as rare as an ELVIS spotting!
Jesus is essentially saying, “I was present in the Great Assembly as the Word of God bearing a message to the Elohim and here I am now bearing a message to you and you are doubting my Divinity.”
I really don't know what Jesus was saying. But if that is what he meant, and if he wanted to be understood, he could have just said:
“I was present in the Great Assembly as the Word of God bearing a message to the Elohim and here I am now bearing a message to you and you are doubting my Divinity.”
Has Gerald Flurry ever said anything rational?
4:06
Right. What he said was in Aramaic that was translated into Greek and then translated into 16th century English. So it is pretty unlikely that he would say the statement as I have cast it. In addition the part about his being present as The Word is implicit and unspoken. If all of that seems too much interpretation, just focus on the fact that Psalm 82, when it says 'ye are gods', is not talking to or about human beings.
David Bentley Hart translates the scripture as:
"If he called gods those (from Psalms 82, the Elohim) to whom God's Logos came, and the scripture cannot be dissolved, How is it that, because I have said I am the Son of God, you say, 'You blaspheme' to one whom the Father sanctified and send out into the Cosmos?"
The parenthetical is mine.
Scout
I’m surprised people still believe he’s the “king” when he just mumbles nonsense. Each time he spoke when I was in the cult at HQ, I always struggled to understand his sermons because I was keep on nodding off!!
GRF was boring decades ago, and is even worse than dull now. How can they expect that organization to grow with him at the helm? Unfortunately, his privileged son isn't much better, just younger.
Claiming that HWA turned the hearts of the fathers towards their children and visa versa is nonsense. It wasn't in the mental diet dished out to his members. Much of what these ACOGs teach is marketing with a few crumbs of truth. Which is unsurprising since Herb was trained in advertising,
Psalm 82, as usual taken out of context by PCG. I pointed this out to a local minister but he refused and could not accept the later verse that says, "But you shall fall (die) like men." He couldn't accept that "gods" can die like men. If they were just regular men, it would've been rendered, "But you shall die as men."
Dr. Michael Heiser taught about The Divine Council of Psalm 82, which I think would open understanding of how God desirs to share decision-making with His creation. Dr. Heiser's teachings are still widely available on YouTube. Worth the watch.
As for PCG's doctrinal teachings, specifically Flurry's? No need to dwell on them. Let it die with him - a man.
Right, 9:17. And this flew because, in the words of your typical member from the golden age of classic WCG, "Mr. Armstrong don't allow no innaleckshulls here!"
Ps 82:6a I have said, Ye are gods;
Ps 82:6b and all of you are children of the most High.
Jn 10:34 Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?
Jn 10:35 IF HE CALLED THEM GODS, UNTO WHOM THE WORD OF GOD CAME, and the scripture cannot be broken;
“To whom the word of God came: Some of the rabbis applied Ps 82:6 to the Israelites who witnessed the revelation at Sinai (e.g., the Babylonian Talmud, Abodah Zarah 51)” (J. Ramsey Michaels, John, NIBC, p.191 - but see his fuller exposition in the NICNT).
Jn 10:36 Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?
“Jesus employs an intricate argument from Scripture to show that his equality with God is of God’s making, not Jesus’. He introduces his argument in v.34a with the phrase “your law” for rhetorical effect. Jesus wants his adversaries to recognize that their charge of blasphemy will be undone by their own Scripture...
“Jesus’ argument in vv. 34-36 employs several exegetical techniques common to first- and second- century Jewish exegesis. Jesus’ exegesis may seem strained to contemporary exegesis, but it fall solidly within the range of exegetical approaches of first-century Judaism. Therefore, it is wrong to read Jesus’ exegesis in vv. 34-36 as a parody of Jewish exegesis.
“First, Jesus cites only the first half of Ps 82:6, even though he clearly presupposes the rest of the verse (“children of the Most High, all of you”) in his argument (see v.36). Second, in rabbinic argumentation, a comparison could be made between two biblical texts, even if the words occur in distinct contexts and with quite different meanings. Jesus employs this technique when he compares “gods” to God (vv. 35-36). Third his main line of argumentation follows the common rabbinic pattern of arguing from the lesser to the greater. That is, if Scripture speaks of human beings who receive the Word of God as gods, how can it be blasphemy for Jesus to speak of himself as God’s Son?...
“Jesus’ self-description in v.36 answers the Jews’ blasphemy charge, because it points to God as the author of Jesus’ identity and vocation, not Jesus himself...” (Gail R. O’Day, The Gospel of John, NIB, Vol.9, pp.677-78).
Ex 21:6a Then his master shall bring him unto the judges [elohim]
Ex 22:9b the cause of both parties shall come before the judges [elohim]; and whom the judges [elohim] shall condemn, he shall pay double unto his neighbour.
“Rabbinic interpretation argued that this psalm was addressed to Israel’s tribes as they received the law at Sinai. It recalled Exodus 4:22-23, “Israel is my firstborn son, and I told you, ‘Let my son go, so he may worship me.’” If the word “god” can be applied to those other than God himself in the Scriptures - if someone can be called a “son of God” here in God’s unbreakable word - why are Jesus’ word blasphemy. In John 10:36 Jesus calls himself “God’s Son, and this is surely an echo of this historic context...” (Gary M. Burge, John, NIBC, p.297).
Rabbinic interpretation = human interpretation. Yes, familiar with Dr. Heiser's teaching on the Divine Council of Psalm 82 that 6:55 was referring to. I prefer that over rabbinic interpretations.
Hos 11:1 When ISRAEL was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.
Hos 11:2 As they called them, so they went from them: they SACRIFICED UNTO BAALIM, AND BURNED INCENSE TO GRAVEN IMAGES.
Mt 2:15 And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son.
“As usual, Matthew’s christological interpretation consists not of exegesis of what the text quoted meant in the original context, but of a far-reaching theological argument which takes the OT text and locates it within an over-arching scheme of fulfillment which finds in Jesus the end point of numerous trajectories...” (R. T. France, The Gospel of Matthew, NICNT, p.81).
The issue in John 10 is not a literal interpretation but a midrash on Ps 82 - two different issues.
Jn 10:33 The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.
Jn 10:35 IF he called them gods, unto whom the word [logos] of God [Theos] came [egeneto]
“The opening words of Jesus’ argument, If he called them ‘gods’, to whom the word of came, suggests that he interpreted the quotation from the psalm in relation to the Sinai events as did later rabbinic scholars...” (Colin G. Kruse, John, Revised TNTC, p.281).
Jer 1:2 To whom the word of the LORD [Theos] came [egeneto LXX] in the days of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.
Eze 1:3a The word [logos, LXX] of the LORD [kurios] came [egeneto LXX] expressly unto Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi,
“The phrase “to whom the word of God came (egeneto)” is more naturally to be understood as those to whom the message was spoken, and is frequently so used in the OT prophets, especially in Jer and Ezek)” (George R. Beasley-Murray, John, 2nd ed., WBC, p.177).
“Jesus’ question, based on his reading of Psalm 82:6, was that if God named those to whom he gave his law ‘gods’, why should he be charged with blasphemy if he, as the one whom God himself set apart as his very own and sent into the world, said ‘I am God’s Son’? It is an argument from the lesser to the greater: if those to whom the law was given could be called ‘gods’, then surely the one whom God had commissioned and sent into the world could call himself ‘the Son of God’ without being guilty of blasphemy. Jesus used the exegetical methods of his opponents to show that they had no grounds for accusing him of blasphemy. It did not mean that Jesus endorsed this approach” (Colin G. Kruse, John, Revised TNTC, p.281).
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