PCG: New Blog Holding Doctrinal Issues and Teachings of Gerald Flurry To Account

 

There is a new blog up that is holding PCG accountable.

PCG Watch is a site dedicated to analyzing the claims, doctrines and predictions made by Gerald Flurry and the PCG. In order to do this we will also need to analyze many of the doctrines and predictions of Herbert W. Armstrong. 

 

Gerald Flurry and Herbert W. Armstrong have through the years made many specific prophecies—predictions that can be confirmed or falsified. While many members forget these claims, it is our purpose to make you remember and judge for yourself whether they came true. Many other claims, about the history of Christianity, about the origins of doctrines, about the whereabouts of historical peoples, about the nature of ancient prophecies, have been made by Flurry and Armstrong which we will ask you to reconsider in the light of facts and perspectives the PCG and Gerald Flurry—whether by ignorance or by willful deception—do not mention. 

 

The authors of the website believe there is more independent thinking within the PCG than many members may realize. We have received numerous articles from members discussing PCG doctrines in the light of previous Armstrong teachings, biblical scriptures, historical facts, or secular writings—most times this independent thinking is rewarded with a suspension or a disfellowshipment.
We welcome any submissions from members or past-members who believe they have something to say about the accuracy of PCG teachings. 

 

We would also like to encourage responses or rebuttals from PCG authorities, which we will freely post here. One of the defining features of the PCG is that their leaders spend almost no time addressing criticism of their doctrines from the outside, choosing instead to ignore them and hope their members have not heard.

Please check out PCG Watch here.

 

Philadelphia Church of God Propaganda To Woo The Public

 

Here is a slick ad that the Philadelphia Church of God commissioned to promote the Armstrong Auditorium and its concert series.

While PCG women and students can't wear lipstick or clothing such as the woman in the video is wearing they deceive the public by paying for this kind of deceptive advertising. Imagine the shock of this couple if they ever decided to join the PCG cult and they find out she can't wear make-up and dress in revealing clothing and he will seldom ever have a chance to ever wear a tuxedo again. The money they waste on those clothes, going to frivolous concerts, and living in a well-appointed home will be a thing of the past, especially when they find out they will be sending in 40-50% of their income to the cult to fund the travel of the Flurry family and their grandchildren for Irish dance competitions.

To become entangled in the Philadelphia Church of God cult is the farthest thing one could do in "Rediscovering Joy."

PCG: "We must spiritually nurture [HWA's Prayer Rock] that is in our presence in every way we possibly can!"

If you think the convoluted story about the Stone of Herb cannot get any weirder, read on:

This prophecy is dated: It is specifically about going to the place of safety with the new throne of David. We had to break away from the lukewarm Worldwide Church of God. God is focusing our minds on the place of safety, and also on conducting ourselves like King David did.

This prophecy shows not just a leader going to that place, but all of God’s faithful people going there together. Daniel 12:8-11 paint a similar picture. We are all in this together; we leave together and are taken to a place of safety together. It says, “And from the time that the daily [the Work of God] shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.” Subtracting the 1,260 days we are in the place of safety from this 1,290 days indicates we have 30 days to get to a place of safety, and all of us go together.

"We are all in this together; we leave together..."  Of all of the splinter groups of Armstrongism, the Philadelphia Church of God and the Restored Church of God are the two groups that have the potential to lead their followers into some kind of death scenario. Their members blindly follow ANYTHING their leaders say as god delivered fact. 

And notice verse 10: “Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried.” God wants us to be purified. I think that has a lot to do with us having the new throne of David. God wants a purified throne and a pure people when He arrives! Verses 12-13 talk about the wonderful ending of all this: It is leading right into the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, when He receives the throne of David!

Amos 7 tells us when we go to the place of safety. There you see a priest, Amaziah, telling the king, Jeroboam, about God’s prophet. There is a confrontation, and the priest does the dirty work. He tells God’s prophet, “O thou seer, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there” (verse 12). This is spiritual Antiochus—Satan incarnate!

All indications are that this is how the nobility of Israel will go: We will be outcasts, sent to a cave! But we have the very throne of David! We don’t look to things or to people—we look to God! It doesn’t matter where we go as long as God is directing us!

Flurry, admits to his faithful that no where in the Bible is it mentioned that Jeremiah took a stone to Ireland.  Nowhere.  What the Philadelphia Church of God does claim is that Herbert Armstrong PROVED that Jeremiah took the stone to Ireland along with the Ark of the Covenant and David's harp.  Herbert did no such that.

In its account of the history of Jeremiah rescuing Zedekiah’s daughter to transplant the throne, the Bible never mentions him taking a stone. We know he did because it is a symbol of David’s throne. Jeremiah had to have the coronation stone—after all, he was taking the throne of David to Ireland! Mr. Armstrong proved from Irish history that when Jeremiah came to Ireland with Tea-Tephi, he had an ark, David’s harp and a stone called lia-fail.But these last three items were not mentioned in the book of Jeremiah when it discusses the king’s daughters. The same is true in Micah: It mentions a king but doesn’t say anything about the stone. As with Jeremiah, that is covered elsewhere. But we need the symbol of David’s throne, and we need somebody to rule from it!

The PCG idolatry grows more each day.  Just how can a person "spiritually nurture" an inanimate object in "every way possible?" The church has always mocked Catholics for revering statues, and Flurry is doing the exact same thing he mocks.

We must spiritually nurture the throne of God that is in our presence in every way we possibly can! God has given it to us to care for it and to be responsible for it.

Satan attacks Philadelphia Church of God by using Hamas and Orthodox Jews

The Philadelphia Church of God has been working overtime in promoting their Hezikiah find from their archaeological dig in Jerusalem.  They claim that one miracle after another is happening because this dig has been blessed by their god.  However, Satan is also busy at work attacking the dig and the PCG.

Satan hates the Philadelphia church of God!

One day, Brianna Weeks was helping the dig registrar, Alexandra, collect and register finds. One small animal figurine leg had gone missing—the fear was that it had been thrown out near the washing area. Alexandra was desperately looking for the piece in that location, but returned without finding it. Brianna said a silent prayer, asking God to help Alexandra find it. I’ll let Brianna summarize the rest:

It wasn’t long before Alexandra got up to go look for the leg again. She looked in the exact same spot that she had looked before—only this time, I heard a gasp. She had found it! She brought it over to me with a look of total disbelief on her face. She couldn’t believe it. She told me over and over how she just couldn’t believe she’d found it. Then she said that she knew it was a miracle. I was throwing a little party in my head; it was absolutely amazing to see God answer my prayer like that and to see that even she realized that this was a special thing that had happened. She came back to me for days after that, telling me over and over about how she had found the leg and how she still just couldn’t believe it.

The miracles kept on coming.  

Another was the general energy on the dig site. It is a rigorous routine, especially for the students: waking up around 4 a.m., beginning the dig at 6:30 a.m., finishing at 2:30 p.m., taking college classes throughout the afternoon and on into the evening. Yet somehow, we felt more energized than one would expect, considering the regimen. Callum Wood (a 2012 digger) recalled trying to maintain the (incredibly productive!) schedule after the dig was over—in his words, “Not a chance.” The ability to handle the intense workload “was one of the biggest miracles I remember from the dig,” he said. There are the general aches and pains, but it is common for the students to report that, upon entering the dig site, the aches and pains disappear—until the dig day is over and we walk back out of the gate. 

Of course, anything that God loves, Satan hates. And so there are the clear satanic attacks that come with digging—particularly on this excavation. For that initial 2017 meeting for the dig to start, Stephen Flurry was originally intended to go—instead, he was grounded in the Philippines, his wife sick and unable to secure a doctor’s note to fly. One of the students who came in to participate on the dig was hassled at the airport by an immigration officer. Despite having the correct paperwork, he was lambasted as a “liar.” Archaeologist Brent Nagtegaal, waiting on the other side of Customs, talked on the phone with this officer—he was also castigated as a “liar.” One day there was a massive gas explosion just down the road from our apartment. We noticed what had happened as we neared home, returning from the dig site. The hunt for survivors was being conducted in the parking garage where it had happened; one person was killed and three injured.

One day, a sinister event happened. A man stopped by the dig site to meet with Dr. Mazar—he had worked with her and us about 10 years ago during the City of David excavations. The meeting was nothing unusual. But just two days later, he was stabbed to death a few hundred yards away in the Old City. The tragedy struck us as particularly unusual—we had no contact for a decade, and within two days of meeting him, he was killed. It was a stark reminder of how much Satan hates these excavations and that we must pray for God’s protection. 

And who could forget Operation Pillar of Defense, which occurred during our 2012 excavation? Hamas had, for the first time, fired long-range rockets at Jerusalem from Gaza. The air around us was sporadically filled with the howling of air raid sirens and the thump! of the rockets as they crashed in the distance, fortunately causing little harm or damage. Hearing the sirens was an eerie experience—that was the first time they had ever been used in Jerusalem. 

Then there was the strong verbal abuse and protests by Orthodox Jews attempting to shut down the City of David excavation in Area G, accusing us (falsely) of digging up tombs. Hundreds of Jews had succeeded in shutting down an excavation there a decade before, pelting the excavators with rocks. This one, though, they couldn’t run us off. That area yielded up the important finds of the Gedeliah bulla and the exciting tunnel continuing underneath the Stepped Stone Structure. During later digs on the Ophel, we were on the receiving end of rock throwing—from Arabs atop the southern wall of the Temple Mount. The stones could have done immense damage had they hit their mark—yet we were protected and the dig was allowed to continue.

Update About Father Searching For Children Trapped In Gerald Flurry's Philadelphia Church of God

It’s been 6 years since I’ve heard from my children. I’m always searching the web for information or pictures of them. They are not allowed to contact me because of the evil no contact ruling imposed on them under penalty of death by the evil cult leader Gerald Flurry. 

Just the other day a recently freed member of the PCG got in touch with me with information on my son Nathan and daughter Elise Moffett. Thanks to this person escaping the evil cult I was given some insight into what my children are going through. I am so thankful for the information and so thankful that this person took the time to send it to me. Because of it, I’m hopeful that my children will be among those that will soon be free from this evil mind-controlling cult.

Let me say that I was not told this information was confidential. So I feel free to publish it in hopes that it will encourage and help others that are going through this loss. I hope to hear more from this courageous person.

Here is some of what I was told (emphasis mine):

“Elise was working for Mr. Turgeon, as his personal assistant. Before that, she was working in the AC kitchen. I think she was happy to get out of the kitchen…. Personally, I think it would be excruciatingly boring to work for a guy like Mr. Turgeon, but at least its not Mr. Davis.... Nathan worked landscaping for the college for a while, but then moved out to start his own business.

There is one story I think you'll find interesting (and ridiculous). There used to be a rule about how much an AC student could drink when they were off campus. There was a 2-drink limit if you were over the drinking age, but if you were under it and you were at a married couple's house, you could have 1 drink. So I believe some freshmen went out and had two drinks at someones house, and it got back to Mr. Burns and Mr. Turgeon through the usual spies... (ugh... don't even get me started). So they came back and "reiterated" that the rules were you could only have 1 drink, and if you were under the drinking age, you could only drink if you were at a married couple's house. Now, since the rule had always been 2 drinks, some of the older students spoke up in their meetings and asked why it was being changed. Why punish responsible students by lowering the drink limit just because of freshmen? Mr. Burns and Mr. Turgeon replied that it had always been a 1 drink policy--which was clearly wrong, and every student could tell you that. Elise, being Mr. Turgeon's assistant, told him that it had originally been 2, but Mr. Burns told her "no, it has always been 1." Then, when Elise was telling this story to me she said "it was like 1984 up in there." "We're not changing the rules, it's always been a 1-drink limit!" 

So, yes, the story and the rule is all a little bit trivial, but I could tell it was a time where Elise was just frustrated about the ridiculous micromanaging and dishonesty among the higher ups. I, for what its worth, actually think that they are so used to doing this kind of thing that they begin to believe their own lies. Elise and Nathan are both very smart, and I am waiting for a lot of smart people to leave in the next 2 years when Trump leaves office. I am not sure if you know, but GRF says President Trump is the Jeroboam of Amos 7 who will kick the church out of the US and into "Judah." So if any of my family members are still in the church after Trump leaves office, I'm going to be ******************  “ (redacted to protect identity. but lets’ just say “upset”.

Again, THANK YOU to the caring person that sent me this information and congratulations that you had the courage to leave the cult. I pray that this person does not have to go through the loss of family because of their brave decision to leave. Let’s all pray for those newly freed and those still enslaved. We all know what they are going through.

Dan Moffett

PCG's Hezekiah Exhibit: Making Biblical Archeology "Sexy" Again

If you have been following Philadelphia Church of God's recent media blitz you would imagine that they have once and for all proven that they are the one true church because they have been participating in a dig in Jerusalem for several years with Dr Eliat Mazar. No other COG understands biblical archeology or truth better than the PCG.

The Times of Israel is reporting about PCG's new exhibit in the Armstrong Auditorium lobby.

Why a world premiere of precious biblical artifacts is in quiet Oklahoma

A rare world premiere exhibit of ancient biblical-era artifacts was launched this week at the Armstrong Auditorium in Edmond, Oklahoma. Located in the middle of lush green fields, the massive, pillared auditorium — complete with a water sculpture at its entrance — is an unlikely forum for the first ever display of tangible proof of the biblical King Hezekiah and Prophet Isaiah.

For the first time in the world, seal impressions or bullae discovered in 2009-2010 in Jerusalem’s Old City at the Ophel excavations conducted under Hebrew University archaeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar are on show to the general public in the exhibit “Seals of Isaiah and King Hezekiah Discovered.” Other finds, such as a large cache of 2,000-year-old coins from the Jewish revolt discovered earlier this year in a cave near the Ophel, are also having their premiere.

Still more rare First Temple Period artifacts are also on display, largely taken from Tel Lachish and Tel Beersheva excavations. The weapons, ceramics and weigh stones are striking. But the explainer films, interactive programmed tablets, reproductions of key finds, including the British Museum’s Lachish relief, as well as a huge scale cross-section of Hezekiah’s tunnel in Jerusalem, all shore up the historicity of the biblical story and the 8th century BCE Assyrian siege. This narrative is clearly spelled out in the showcases throughout the attractive auditorium lobby.

The article goes on to mention that the PCG has dropped over a $500,000.00 in putting on this production.  A half million dollars in tithe money that the poorer PCG members struggle to send in. 

The exhibit is the fruit of a 50-year partnership between a group of steadfast Christians and generations of the archaeological Mazar family. And it is impressive.

But who will see it?

When the Ambassador Foundation put on exhibits from Thailand and China in the 1980's it had a ready audience by the fact it was in the middle of the Los Angeles basin.  Thousands came to see the exhibits.  PCG is right in the centre of cow pattie fields.

Now take a look at how many the PCG expects to have in attendance:

Edmond, a suburb of Oklahoma City, is located smack dab in the Bible Belt. Several church bus tours are already scheduled to make their way there, according to the exhibit’s curator, Brad MacDonald, bringing 40-50 visitors each.

But in conversation in Jerusalem the day after the grand opening, vice president of the Armstrong International Cultural Foundation Stephen Flurry seems untroubled when he estimates that only some 10-15 individuals will trickle in each day.

After the Herbert Armstrong College students and local PCG members all stop by to the see the exhibit, scant few of the public will ever see it. 

The Times of Jerusalem goes on to state that far more will see it online than ever in person:

That’s where the exhibit’s smart online presence takes up the gauntlet.

Interested surfers can attend the exhibit virtually through its dramatic YouTube videos, highlighting the thoughtful artifact display and the surrounding explanatory material.

In many ways, the Armstrong Foundation’s online presence is of much more relevance than its onsite exhibit.

The Times of Jerusalem also states a fact that PCG refuse to acknowledge, what if their biblical "facts" are not necessarily true?

Only a click or two brings a viewer to a seemingly endless font of information about the artifacts themselves and the biblical history. It is all housed on the WatchJerusalem.com website, one of the several media outlets connected to the foundation, its associated Philadelphia Church of God, and its seminary, the Herbert W. Armstrong College.

There is no pretense of scientific skepticism in the exhibit. The foundation’s goal is to “bring the Bible to life,” says Flurry, who lives outside of Birmingham, United Kingdom, at a second Armstrong College seminary.

The article also questions the disproportional amount of money spent on the Jerusalem digs:

The Philadelphia Church of God poured half a million dollars into supporting the excavations this year, including student expenses. Flurry estimates many tens of thousands more were spent on this exhibit. These expenses are disproportionately large swaths of the church budget, which flows from a 5,000-strong membership and up to 20,000 additional donors.

Brad McDonald justifies the money spent by stating that they want to get young people engaged in biblical history by making it "sexy".

“We want to make archaeology great again,” laughs Australian exhibit head curator Brad MacDonald, sitting on a dainty couch next to Nagtegaal in the King David ahead of the Jerusalem event.

“We are actively looking for opportunities to play a role or collaborate and make it sexy — something young people can get into,” says MacDonald. 

The Times of Jerusalem also goes on to state that the PCG and Eilat Mazar may have "suspended belief" by some of their dogmatic statements about the artifacts.

Suspension of disbelief

Accuracy is definitely the goal in all research, including archaeology. But when the subjects of study are long dead, many facets are open to interpretation.

The main stars of the Oklahoma exhibit, the Hezekiah and Isaiah seal impressions, are one such example. Could they really have belonged to the biblical king and his chief adviser? 

Dr. Eliat Mazar says:

According to Mazar, “the identification of the seal impression of King Hezekiah is very certain, beyond any shadow of doubt, as you can read for yourself.” She reads out the clear Hebrew inscription at the King David event, “‘Belonging to King Hezekiah, son of Ahaz, King of Judah.'”

The other seal, she acknowledges, is much less certain. Upon its publication earlier this year as a goodbye present to the longtime, retiring editor of the Biblical Archaeology Review Hershel Shanks, the claim that the seal impression was connected to the famous prophet was met with skepticism. In her King David Hotel presentation, Mazar herself introduces the find as “maybe the seal impression by Prophet Isaiah.” 

It's all a "may be!"  Now there is a good Church of God statement!  That's standard operating procedure for most COG prophets who spout nonsense today.  

Suspended belief, no pretense of skepticism, and over half million dollars spent. What more could we expect from a Church of God in 2018?

Read the entire article here:  Why a world premiere of precious biblical artifacts is in quiet Oklahoma