Gerald Flurry: I am That Prophet And WIll Speak The Final Words To Christ

 

The blasphemy that comes out of Gerald Flurry's mouth is appalling. Even worse are the idiot members who sit there and believe this garbage. 

Armstrongism has produced some of the most brain-dead followers imaginable. Just look at the people who sit there each week listening to Flurry, Thiel, and Pack and hang on to their words as if God spoke them himself. Common sense and spiritual/intellectual discernment are truly lacking.

Yep #GeraldFlurry actually said he, as a mortal man, is going to deliver the "final message" and the throne of David to Jesus Christ.

Look up #blasphemy:https://t.co/9cE0GDGX7i

His entire book about himself as #ThatProphet never once mentions John 6:14, which is Jesus Christ. pic.twitter.com/uZDMFNUszR

— PCG Facts (@PCGFacts) October 1, 2024

Opening Night Of Feast: "This is God's time", Yet Many Still Skip It

One anomaly in the Church of God was that the church was never able to completely make its members attend the opening night service of the Feast, and still cannot to this day. For many in the church, making it to this service on time, if at all, was due to the fact many did not have the luxury of taking off lots of extra days to leisurely travel to a Feast site. It ended up being a rush to get to the site and check in, exhausting many, especially those with children.

Here we are in 2024 and this is still an issue. Not only is that is an issue, but members skipping out on weekday services is a problem too. After traveling long distances people don't want to be parked in some dank hotel ballroom listening to a canned sermon you have heard for decades by the same person. 

United Church of God has this up:

As we head to the Feast, let’s determine in our hearts to serve Him first and observe the Feast as He commands. Make it a priority to be there at the opening night service (or the first scheduled service) at your Feast site. This is God’s time—be where and when He wants you to be. When faced with the choice between attending services or Bible study and what “we want to do,” choose God first. There is plenty of time for the other activities we can enjoy at the Feast. 

 

And remember to pray and make extra time for prayer. We gather where He placed His name for the Feast—to His house, the temple He is building in us. His house is meant to be a “house of prayer.” During this time, draw close to God. Use this time to commit to growing closer to Him. Dedicate yourself to keep His ways, truly “coming out of this world.” Grow daily in faith and trust in Him.

COG martyr unencumbered by a distracting wife and family faces the prospect of a lonely life

Imagine living a life so deluded by Armstrongism that you will give up relationships with others and deliberately live a lonely life.

God says in His Word, that it’s not good for a man to be alone.  

 

That a man needs a helpmeet.  

 

Ive prayed, and looked for a wife for 15 years now. I was told by one woman, who ended up being my friend, it seemed to her I was the one of the last who believe what believe. There didn’t seem to be anyone in my age group who believes what I believe, she keeps telling me. They all seem to be in “other churches”. 

 

She doesn’t understand why I am fighting so hard to keep my church alive. There doesn’t seem to be much for me here, she said.

My spiritual family are those of God’s Church.

I care about them. And yes, it is sometimes like me placing a letter in a bottle and tossing it into the ocean, hoping it reaches those in need of reaching. I don’t necessarily see who I am talking to, who I’m warning.

But I’ve determined that God and His Church comes first. God says to “seek first the Kingdom” then everything else will be provided for.

And so while I am a man who seeks to please and serve God, somewhere out there is a woman who seeks to please and serve God as well.

My body has weakened over the last few years. My youthfulness is turning to aches and pains as I age. And I am only 33 years old! My dad would laugh and say “it’s the years, it’s the mileage”.

lol.

But I’m learning I can’t do it all myself. I’ve learned more to rely on Jesus Christ for my strength, and ability to finish out the day, to walk by faith where I used to stride with self confidence only years ago!

It’s not good for a man to be alone. I’m alone because Christ has given me something to do and it requires no distractions! And Satan would certainly be hitting me harder if I had a wife and children. Right now he is hitting those close to me, in order to get to me. To isolate me, and to remove any help. So perhaps like Paul it so best to stay single. I don’t know. God’s help is more than enough. I trust His guidance and Headship.

And with God’s Church, it’s going to take all of us to focus, and to help each other. Satan has scattered the flock, because alone we can’t accomplish what we could accomplish if we were together! That’s what we need brethren. To repent and to be unified together all speaking the same thing! As one Worldwide Church of God! Samuel Kitchen

Armstrongism in Contention with Christianity: A Meditation on God and the of Attribute of Size

 

The Giant

by NC Wyeth (Fair Use)

 

 

Armstrongism in Contention with Christianity:

A Meditation on God and the of Attribute of Size

By Scout

 

When I was in the Ninth Grade, I discovered that size is an inviolable physical property of the Universe. Size is real and size has meaning. My physics textbook stated that the giant spiders that appeared in a recent horror movie could not have existed.  The reason why is that the proteins that form the hard exoskeleton of the spider could not support a creature of that weight.  If there were such a big spider, it would collapse under its own weight.  Likewise, even though dinosaurs are made of stronger materials, there is a limit to how big they can get before their weight can no longer be supported by their structure and they fall apart.  No doubt N.C. Wyeth’s great giant, illustrated above, cannot really exist either and for the same reasons. There is a range that governs the size that biological creatures can attain and humans are within that range.  This limitation is not something that evolved in the Cosmos.  It simply exists.

God is not Governed by Size

God is absolute and not relative.  Almost everything we know is relative.  (I will omit some of the spooky things in quantum physics that happen outside our zone of perception.) “That fish is bigger than this fish” is a principle that applies to everything in our environment.  Objects exist in three-dimensional space. And that space can be calibrated.  Just look at a ruler.  And every object has size as one of its properties. 

The idea that God has a body in his essence, as Armstrongists assert, means that he falls not into the absolute category but the relative category, like material objects.  He is bigger than this but smaller than that - he can move faster than this but not as fast as that,  etc. This is a great restriction because the Cosmos is very large and God, by comparison, would be very small.  So, he is confined to working remotely with the Cosmos since flying around to different parts of the enormous Cosmos to fix things up is an impossible task.  Some will propose that he works through his spirit which is like a “tractor beam” from Star Trek.  But this places God at the end of a tool as if he were a man fabricating something rather than God creating something.  The Gnostics call such a being a Demi-urge. 

If God were really big, the problem of governing the real estate of the Cosmos would not go away.   A Christian mystic, I cannot recall which, had a vision of God and he handed her a small object about the size of a walnut.  As she held it in her hand, he told her that this is all that was ever made.  The complexity of the Cosmos remains, however, independent of size.  If God is very small in comparison to the Cosmos, there is the macro problem.  His smallness is a hindrance. If he is very large in comparison to the Cosmos, there is the micro problem.   His bigness is a hindrance.  Either way, God is still like a Demi-urge, he just has to use a tool set that works for the size. 

But, of course, God can appear as big as he wants to be or as small as he wants to be because he is absolute in essence and not relative.  This is the nature of a theophany.  A theophany is presentation and not substance.  It is close to the idea of anthropomorphism.  A theophany is a presentation that is actually sensed and anthropomorphism is a presentation that is literary.  Yahweh is a storm God.  A powerful storm was about the biggest, most dramatic thing the ancient mind could encounter.  But one has to maintain perspective.  There are impressive, big storms on earth but the Red Spot on Jupiter is a storm that is 1.3 times the diameter of earth.  All of our yardsticks are relative and do not apply to God.

My guess is that if you were to ask Armstrongists how big God is, they would say that he is the same size as Jesus. This is because they misinterpret the scripture where Jesus states if you have seen me you have seen the Father.   Archaeologists know what the average Jew looked like in the time of Jesus.  If Jesus were average, and scripture does not suggest otherwise, he would be 5’ 1” and would weigh 110 pounds.  This is the logical conclusion towards which Armstrongism moves. 

But there is a problem with this conclusion and that is its implications about God’s “origin”.  Who said to God that he can be only a little guy and no larger?  He makes beings that are much larger.  I am just over six feet tall.  Did someone create God to be a certain size in his essence? This conclusion is an absurdity created by believing God is bound by size.  Jesus told us that God is a Spirit.  He transcends human categories such as size.   

My Personal Theory

I have a theory about this and I will present it in summary.  This is a conjecture and not a part of the Christian Doctrine of God that I know.   I don’t expect you to believe this but you might find it worth contemplating. I believe that God does not have boundaries and I think this implements what we call omnipresence.  And, of course, no boundaries, no size. But omnipresence is a much more limited phenomenon that what God actually is.  There is a difference between being at every location in the Cosmos and having no location at all.  

And here is the heart of my conjecture.  The Cosmos is bounded.  And the Cosmos exists within the unbounded God.  We could spend some time on the meaning of the spatial preposition “within” in this context but we can let that pass for now.  Paul said in the Sermon on Mars Hill, “For in him we live, and move, and have our being”.  If Paul had just said that we have our being inside God, I would have seen the whole statement as spiritual concept with no spatial meaning.   And the preposition “in” would be allegorical.  But he says we have our physical movements within God.  This gives the “in” our usual spatial meaning.  Paul is saying that we, citizens of the Cosmos, exist, have our being, both physically and spiritually, in (“in” both actually and allegorically) God. 

So, what do Captain Kirk and Spock see when the come to the boundary of the Cosmos, the really final frontier?  They don’t see anything.  Because human eyes cannot see spirit.  Kirk and Spock can see only as far as the boundary.  And on the other side of the boundary is God infinitely and God cannot be seen.  He is invisible to us.  So, what cannot be seen, appears to our retinas as the darkest dark that you can imagine - no photons, no image.  My guess.

Conclusion

God transcends the human notion of size which is bound to the physics of the Cosmos.  This does not make the Old Testament scriptures a lie but, rather, makes the scriptures poetic.  The problem is that some people do not want to admit that the Bible is literary and it uses figures of speech about God that are anthropomorphisms..  They insist on a literal Bible but who gave them the right to require that?  God gave the message he wanted to give and human curators added their verbiage as well.  It is what it is.  And it serves its intended purpose.  

Why Isn't God A Better Judge Of Feast Site Locations?

 

Living Church of God just released this statement about their Palmetto, Florida Feast site. God had originally placed His name specifically upon this spot for their faithful to experience a foretaste of the Kingdom of God. Apparently, God was not aware that there were two hurricanes bearing down on Florida.

As hurricane Milton approached and the situation developed, it became clear that God decided to move the Feast site from Palmetto to beautiful Fernandina Beach, FL. Services will be held in a modern hotel, within the beautiful setting of Amelia Island. There are a number of items still developing with the site, so check back here and look out for more emails regarding activities. Also, we posted two links showcasing some of the millennial-esque qualities of the surrounding area.

As a reminder, while we are so thank ful He has guided us to this new location, we ask that you continue to pray for those still in the path of the storm. 

 

For more information about this Festival site, please contact the Festival Coordinator, Mr. Ryan Dawson.

Festival Coordinator

Gerald Flurry To Personally Deliver The Final Message To Christ When He Returns

 

There are two absolutely batshit crazy elements in the following letter from the Exit and Support Network site.

First off is this:

Gerald Flurry has declared it a SIN to not refer to their mini-me auditorium as God's House:

October 6, 2024 

 

I am writing about two very concerning things that have recently come from Gerald Flurry. 

 

The first being from the latest Royal Vision magazine. September/October 2024 in an article titled “Two Psalms That Make You Stop and Think” by Gerald Flurry. 

 

On page 6 he says: 

 

“That house [speaking about their Armstrong Auditorium] is called by God’s name! What kind of a sin it is to call it a different name, or not call it God’s house! What a terrible attitude that shows. This is God’s house!” 

 

So now that GF has declared it a sin not to call their silly little auditorium “God’s house” we shall all be waiting for them to publicly make this change–hopefully starting with their web page, X account, Facebook, Instagram account and even their Pinterest page! Let’s see if GF can put his money where his mouth is……. Or would that public proclamation interfere with the image they are trying to cultivate in the community? “We aren’t a cult!”

You can guarantee that there is no way the Philadelphia Church of God will start announcing concerts performing in "God's House" instead of the Amstrong Auditorium. This is all meant for his dumb sheeple to keep them under control. Flurry uses this phrase because Herbert did the same thing with his Ambassador Auditorium. No one called it God's House back then other than in a few limited articles and appeal letters. 

That building was soon a den of iniquity where alcohol and drugs flowed freely and where molestations, sexual assaults, thefts, and enough gay and straight sex that it would have taken weeks to sanitize it. Demons were reported to be active in it. Yet, it was God's House, at least Armstrongism's version where we pollute anything we came into contact with.

Next, we move on to the blasphemous King Gerald Flurry and this utter balderdash about where he will deliver spoken words in a final message to Jesus Christ when he returns.

Second, in a recent Key of David program, titled “Who is that Prophet? (2024)” the narcissistic, megalomaniac Gerald Flurry, made one of his craziest declarations thus far! At approximately 50 seconds into the program, he stated, 

 

“this man, who is ‘that Prophet’ is going to deliver the final message to Jesus Christ when he returns.” 

 

This blasphemous statement was also printed along the bottom of the screen, no mistake was made. And for those who may be new to learning about the PCG, Gerald Flurry claims he is “That Prophet,” among other tiles such as Apostle, King, etc. (Read: Biblical Titles Gerald Flurry Has Appropriated for Himself) 

 

So to clarify, GF has claimed that he receives revelation from Christ both through scriptures and hearing voices. This then begs the question, if GF has to give this message to Christ, who then who is actually “revealing“ these messages to GF? He actually believes he is so special that God will use him to deliver a message to His son Jesus Christ. Absolute insanity! He is essentially placing himself in a position above Jesus Christ! 

 

Those familiar with the workings of a cult and cult leaders will already know that things like this often happen with leaders. 

 

If this won’t raise a few eyebrows of the mind-controlled members, then at the very least hopefully it prevents new people from joining this religious cult, as their leader continues to escalate. –Z. A. Exit and Support Network

In spite of all this craziness, Armstrongism in its various imaginations claims they are God breathed into existence. God supposedly speaks directly to various leaders telling them all kinds of super fantastical tales and they then feel the need to report it to their dwindling flocks. There is no message that so many of these crazy loons proclaim that has worth for humanity. Jesus is never the center of attention of these groups.

Turned over to Satan: Dis-Membered From Which and What?

 

 

Falling away was always a scary topic in WCG. Getting "turned over to Satan" was no small problem for the unbelieving, rebellious towards Church everything, tired of all the scandal, stuck with an authoritarian and incapable of love and mercy type Pastor, unable or unwilling to give til it hurt, and it did or any number of other issues that could play hard on the mind of the member or the minister. 

One got "marked" and dis-membered real quick and often publically back in the day. Later, when it was more a flood of fallers away, not so much.

At any rate, the church "wished them no ill, but that they would repent". However, some scriptures indicated that it was too late to repent while others would extend an olive branch of kindness. Most who fell never wanted to return anyway. 

I spoke with a former AC student who was accused by the Administration of "being gay."  He wasn't but that was that for him. He left when he declared "I am not gay," and the pastor simply told asked him "Do you believe we are God's chosen ministry?"  In other words, "if we think you are gay and we discern that you are gay, we are not wrong."  So he "fell away". 

The scriptures on the topic are pretty tough on the one who questions, get's tired or simply can't take this or that any longer. 

They range from "once and done" to "aw, come on back and all is forgiven." Most opt for the second as losing members these days is a problem, and Churches have to keep the numbers up. 

Even in the First Century, one had the option of falling away from either the Jewish Christian version of the truth or the Pauline Genitle version. And early in the game, the NT is filled with the charges and countercharges each had for the other illustrating this early problem. Falling away so early in the history of the NT church was pretty common. They came, they saw, the left either following others such as Apollo or Paul or in the case of WCG, Larry, Moe or Curly. 

The Author of Hebrews says: Hebrews 6:4-6 

 

For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.

However, James says: James 5:19-20 

 

My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

And Even Paul Says: 1 Corinthians 10:13 

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

 

But then the author of "Peter" says: 2 Peter 2:20-22 

 

For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”

 

But then Paul Says: Romans 11:19-22 

 

Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off.

 

(Note: "kindness" but also "severity" makes no sense to me personally. It's the "Compulsory fear and Compulsory love" problem. You know, as the sign on the Interstate said, "Love Jesus or burn forever in Hell". )

 

So aside from the concept of "you have had it" to "no, you can be salvaged, the question in our day and age becomes "Fall away from who or what?" 

 

Currently there are over 45,000 differing Christian denominations with all having various twists and turns of belief than the others. All believe they are "the faith once delivered" and NO ONE believes they belong to" the false church" or that their faith is misplaced or their beliefs mistaken. 

 

Many of these differences are not minor. Some are tolerant of others and let them "also be true Christians" but many insist on being "the true Church" and you are not. 

 

So if you fall away from a True Church, big trouble Biblically. If you fall away from "Christianity falsely so called" or "Churchianity" as WCG often portrayed everyone else, no biggy, as long as you come "into the truth" of the WCG. Many others churches feel this way about themselves as well. 

 

How often I heard as a pastor during the crazy times, "I have not fallen away from the Church! The Church has fallen away from me!".  How little did those people realize just how much further the Church they knew and originally was drawn to would fall away from everyone.  

 

Huge topic and in the mix of us that read and contribute to Bannedhwa, having shared our common first love of our youth, we now find every combination of human religious affiliation or not common to man, here on Bannedhwa as well. 

 

What say you about all this?