Why is it that Armstrongism has so many bloviating fools who think they are authorities on everything and that they need to "educate" the world? The world is too dumb to understand things and certain COG leaders feel the need to run off at the mouth about how they think things should be.
Gerald Flurry in his attempt to imitate Herbert Armstrong, searched for years to establish a connection in Israel in order for his HWA College students could participate in an archeological dig like the Ambassador College students participated in in the 1970s. He soon found that person to work with, Dr. Eilat Mazar, in various digs in Jerusalem.
There is a huge archeological park in Jerusalem called the City of David and has been the site of archeological digs since the 1800s. Flurry was anxious to get this college and church involved in the digs there:
Before she died this past May 25, we had worked for years with archaeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar in and around the City of David and had developed a very close relationship with her. (If you don’t have one, we would be happy to send you a free copy of our latest Watch Jerusalem magazine, which we devoted entirely to Dr. Mazar and her findings.) There are some very talented archaeologists in the world, especially in Jerusalem, but I believe Dr. Mazar will be remembered as one of the greatest archaeologists of all time.
A few years ago, we reached out to Dr. Mazar to see if she could arrange a meeting for us with David Be’eri. Mr. Be’eri established the City of David Foundation and is renovating the City of David archaeological park. His foundation also purchases properties and owns a lot of real estate in the City of David. He is quite an authority over that area, and we wanted to see if we could talk with him to understand his plans for future archaeological excavations, when those would occur and who would be involved. We have always felt that excavation of the palace of David is incomplete. We wanted to help finish it, and we wanted to see if Mr. Be’eri and others were thinking the same way.
Flurry makes it sound like the folks doing the archeological digs there were too stupid to understand what was under their feet. However, as you can see in this video they are well aware of what is there.
We really wanted Dr. Mazar’s support, but she wasn’t totally comfortable with helping us arrange a meeting and did not want to accompany us. We prayed about it and tried hard to persuade her, but she remained unmoved.
But then, in February 2019, I visited Jerusalem. We met with Dr. Mazar and talked with her for probably an hour—and we saw her totally change her mind. She was now pleased for us to meet with Mr. Be’eri and arranged the meeting for us!
We met Mr. Be’eri at his office the following day. We quickly saw that he is a mover and a shaker in Jerusalem, even more than we were expecting. He trained with the Israeli commandos in the famous 1976 raid in Entebbe, Uganda, where 100 Jewish hostages were freed. One of the other commandos, the only one who was killed, was Lt. Col. Yonatan Netanyahu, Benjamin Netanyahu’s brother. Mr. Be’eri is still close with Benjamin Netanyahu.
Mr. Be’eri has accomplished some wonderful things in the City of David archaeological park. As part of his job, he goes to wealthy people and asks them to support his work in the City of David. When they ask, What’s in it for us? he tells them, I want to give you something that will give more meaning to your life. What a beautiful and noble answer! This man sincerely seeks to bring Christians and Jews and everybody else together. He even has a working relationship with archaeologist Israel Finkelstein, who disagrees quite a bit with Dr. Mazar’s findings and has serious doubts about David and Solomon’s presence in the City of David and on the Ophel. But Mr. Be’eri is a strong man, like Zadok, who was a warrior before he became a priest. He tells it like it is, and it’s refreshing to meet somebody like that.
We showed him pictures of Herbert W. Armstrong’s involvement with Prof. Benjamin Mazar and his meetings with Israeli prime ministers and presidents. He told us he expected excavations at David’s palace to resume in two years (this was before COVID-19 brought everything to a standstill in Israel). At that time, he told us Dr. Mazar would be the one doing the digging. And since Dr. Mazar said previously that she would not dig without Herbert W. Armstrong College participation, we hoped that we would be involved in this dig at the City of David.
But things have been in a holding pattern for some time because of coronavirus lockdowns. Then when Dr. Mazar died this past spring, we wondered how that would further affect things.
On the surface having an opportunity for his college students to participate in a dig is a worthwhile project, but being that Flurry is a megalomaniac COG leader, he has a deeper motive and that is to insert his biblical interpretations into what he thinks should be said about the archeological excavations. He also sees this as a prime opportunity to gain a footing in Jerusalem so that they are center stage when the battle of Armageddon happens and the two witless witnesses (always COG members - most likely Bob Thiel and Laura Weinland) will be preaching the message of Herbert Armstrong in the streets of Jerusalem. This will be the message that Herbert supposedly restored and not too much about Christ.
Flurry sees this as his mission now to dump hundreds of thousands of dollars in tithe money into establishing his presence in Jerusalem, because once again, he deems the Israelies too stupid to understand their own archeology. They need the COG version of archeology.
Of course, we want to be involved in this next phase of ongoing excavations in the City of David and would like to get there as soon as possible! We are working even now to visit Israel so we can meet and discuss how we can assist. But when great doors like this open, there is always great opposition. I’d like to ask that you be praying and fasting about this potential opportunity.
I believe that we are going to be moving more and more into Jerusalem to get involved in a dig very soon.
Israel is experiencing a lot of bad news these days. Many Israelis are in despair about their nation’s future. But there is a message of great hope in their own archaeology— and we want to do all we can to share this great hope!
I believe we can and must use ARCHAEOLOGY as a means of reaching the cities of Judah. Because we understand and believe the Bible, we can add incredible meaning to the archaeology of Jerusalem and Israel!
Flurry claims he will not be proselytizing with any of Herbert's theology and just wants to let the stones speak for themselves. We all know that is a lot of deceptive crap. Or maybe not, considering how Herbert Armstrong himself was too embarrassed to discuss Jesus Christ and could only talk about " a strong hand from someplace". Flurry is the same way. He can talk about Irish dance, Herbert's coronation stone, British Israelism, and loads of other non-essential crap, but rarely is Jesus ever mentioned.
During our meeting, Mr. Be’eri gave us approval to give tours of Dr. Eilat Mazar’s archaeological discoveries in the City of David and on the Ophel. We explained to him that we do not intend to proselytize or preach, that we simply want to take the history as it is recorded in the Hebrew Bible and put it alongside the archaeology. To use the words of Dr. Mazar, we simply want to “let the stones speak.” He agreed, and in essence supported us taking this message of Dr. Mazar to the cities of Judah.
Never fear though, the great Savior from Oklahoma, the anointed King of the Church of God and owner of the very throne that Christ will return to, is setting up a new foundation to educate Israel on how things should be:
For many years, I have talked with our Jerusalem department about the need for a new archaeological institute in Jerusalem. Based on feedback we have received from Dr. Mazar and others in the world of biblical archaeology, this field is presently in deep trouble. Biblical archaeology as a field of study is not growing—it is rapidly shrinking. Some of the great biblical archaeologists and professors, like Eilat Mazar and Hershel Shanks, the founder of Biblical Archaeology Review, have recently died.
Worse than this, the spirit of secularism and intellectualism so prevalent in the world has crept into the field of biblical archaeology. There are still biblical archaeologists working today, and some are very good at what they do—but some simply don’t use the Bible enough. Many don’t give it enough credibility or view it as a true authority in their work. In addition, the number of young people getting into the field of biblical archaeology is diminishing. Many just don’t see a future in biblical archaeology.
I believe we need to take action to help solve this problem: There is a desperate need now for some sort of institute or organization to come on the scene and revive biblical archaeology! We need an institution that promotes the Bible as a credible and essential historical source in the practice of archaeology in Israel. More importantly, this institution needs to make biblical archaeology available to the largest audience possible—especially the people of Israel!
I am pleased to say, we are creating just such an institute!
We plan to call it the Armstrong-Mazar Institute of Biblical Archaeology. Right now, our Jerusalem team is creating the website for this new institute. As you are probably familiar with, we already operate watchJerusalem.co.il. Soon we will have two websites for Israel: one that focuses on news and prophecy, and the institute website, which will focus on archaeology.
Church of God archeology and interpretations of that history through the lens of a COG cult leader. This is a train wreck ready to happen!
Flurry is changing the name of his current Watch Jerusalem to a new name to reflect this new education program:
In addition, we are planning some major changes to our print magazine Watch Jerusalem. Starting with the January-February issue, the magazine will be renamed Let the Stones Speak. This will be the magazine of the new institute, and it will focus solely on biblical archaeology.
He then adds this blatant lie:
Let me repeat this point because it’s important: The purpose of this new institute is not to proselytize or convert. The goal is to connect archaeology and the Bible and to show people how much hope there is in archaeology!
This is nothing more than a way to promote Armstrongism, though it will be the PCG version of Armstrongism which bears little resemblance to anything Herbert said or did now that Flurry has rewritten everything.
The Church of God has sadly become a clown show with crazy leaders saying and doing crazy things. As the years go by and they get older, the craziness will intensify till they reach a snapping point and COG members will feel the brunt of that craziness.
Isaiah 40:9 says, “Get thee up into the high mountain” to proclaim this message. The City of David area is mountainous. One time we were in a vehicle trying to navigate through the cars in a parking lot. As Dr. Mazar was trying to turn, she pulled right up to a cliff where you could look down, and it was scary how far down the cliff went into the Valley of Jehoshaphat! I BELIEVE THE PLACE OF THE DIG—INCLUDING EVERYTHING HERBERT W. ARMSTRONG WAS INVOLVED IN AND EVERYTHING WE ARE DOING NOW—IS THIS “HIGH MOUNTAIN.”
Open your wallets and checkbooks, boys and girls! It's time to give Flurry some more money! New buildings need to be bought, display cases made, a room for a library needs to be built, and more.
If we are going to create an institute in Jerusalem, then we really need a building or some sort of office space. We need a space to display our exhibits and to office our staff, who will be producing the magazine and website, as well as engaging in important research. We need a space where people can come and book tours of ancient Jerusalem.
Here is another reason I believe we need some real estate in Jerusalem: This summer we purchased the combined library of Benjamin and Eilat Mazar! This is an incredible blessing for us and a huge sign from God! When a scholar dies, it’s not unusual for his or her research library to be consolidated and then sold at auction. Many institutions and wealthy collectors are prepared to pay good money to own the personal library of an esteemed scholar.
Needless to say, we were thrilled when Dr. Mazar’s family agreed to sell us her library—without it ever going to auction! When we first purchased the library, we believed we were receiving around 3,000 books. As it turns out, the number was closer to 4,000.
Like Herbert Armstrong, Bob Thiel, and Dave Pack, the need to be seen as important weighs heavily on these cult leaders.
That’s not all: In October, Mr. Nagtegaal was at the archaeology department at Hebrew University and noticed boxes upon boxes of books on archaeology and the Bible. We told him to inquire about these books and see if they were available for purchase. Hebrew University gave them all to us free! The number of books in this collection totaled around 4,000!
Last spring, our office in Jerusalem had maybe a hundred books on archaeology and the Bible. By August, that number had grown to 3,000, by September it was 4,000, and by the end of October it had grown to 8,000!
Do you think God wants us to start a biblical archaeology institute in Jerusalem? Owning the library of Prof. Benjamin Mazar and Dr. Eilat Mazar will provide a massive boost to our credibility! This library will be an important part of our institute.
As part of the purchase, there is a stipulation that the libraries must be accessible to the public. This will again necessitate a larger office presence for God’s Work in Jerusalem. God will have to show us how to do this. But it does seem He is telling us to put more emphasis on the archaeology message! Because maybe that is going to be at the heart of what we do from now on, in the most efficient way we possibly can.
Flurry goes on to say:
We have to realize, as Mr. Armstrong said: God’s Church is a miracle! The PCG is a miracle! You are a miracle! Everything this Church is doing in Edmond and around the world and in Jerusalem is a miracle of God! How else could you and I be doing what we are doing? God must really be involved in this Church!
This has to be so humiliating to Bob Thiel, shuttered away in a dingey little brick building in Central CA and relegated to the sub-continent of Africa instead of in Isreal where they heed to hear his message.
Things may not go too well with Flurry's newest escapade.
The foolishness of our current leaders in the COG is appalling.
You can read the entire Member/Co-worker Letter here on Exit and Support Network.
