Students at Herbert W Armstrong College, on the cult compound of the Philadelphia Church of God, have been given a foretaste of what the PCG imagines the Kingdom of God will be like with a new mural recently painted in the old John Amos Field House. That building was the center of college and church life for many years till Flurry built his mini-me auditorium patterned after the Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena, CA.
The JA Field House is still used for basketball, dining, and as a student lounge on the old stage. Sadly the students were subjected to a boring old white wall. But in good COG fashion, someone stepped up to the plate and designed a painting envisioning PCG's imagined world to come.
Evangelist Wayne Turgeon, who oversaw the buildings and grounds department for a number of years before transferring to the United Kingdom-Europe-Africa regional office, said the inspiration for the project came years ago because, with the curtains now open most of the time the stage’s empty white wall seemed to be “crying out for something to fill it up.”
The original concept for the wall was to be a painting of the "New Jerusalem" that the PCG expects soon to descend from on high and plop down at the exact center of the earth. But unfortunately, Gerald Flurry thought that that would involve too much speculation as to what it looked like.
The original subject of the painting was New Jerusalem, but Pastor General Gerald Flurry said he felt that depicting it would rely too much on speculation.
Imagine that, Gerald Flurry worried about too much speculation! Who would have ever thought that considering the bizarre speculations that come out of his aging mind right now?
King Flurry then approved a painting of their imagined kingdom to come.
He then approved a scene from the Millennium, the prophesied 1,000-year period of world peace under the government of God.
Gotta get government in there somehow.
After many discarded ideas had made it into the Kingly dumpster, a design was envisioned and approved.
Artists created several drafts but had a hard time deciding on one. For this and other reasons, the project sat untouched for years. But in early April, Dorning sketched the draft that would become the final version, and the project was underway.
I do appreciate the Temple to Zeus with its Greek phallic columns rising in the background and the father walking the tiger on a leash in the supposedly peaceful kingdom. As one person pointed out on Facebook, "this is a COG where sex and control are always in the background".
Mr. Turgeon expressed his hopes that the mural will “inspire the students, and any other members who see it, to think immediately of the incredible future that lies ahead for all of mankind.”
I also can't help but compare it to the Jehovah's Witness's Kingdom of God paintings that adorn their literature: