Gerald Flurry Tells All Of His Members To Have The Spirit Of Prophecy

 

Gerald Flurry, leader of the Philadelphia Church of God has a new article up about The Spirit of Prophecy. It is another convoluted mishmash of false beliefs created by Gerald  Flurry in an attempt to promote the law and whip his followers into the notion he is the one true prophet to the church. Jesus gets the short end of the stick again.

“And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” (Revelation 19:10). The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. 

 

Testimony comes from the Latin testimonium, which is the word used for the Ten Commandments. Webster’s offers three primary definitions: the tablets inscribed with the Mosaic law; a firsthand authentication of a fact; and a solemn declaration. 

 

So this testimony the Apostle John wrote about is very different from most: It is a declaration from God in the flesh! 

 

The Temple Dictionary of the Bible writes: “In the plural, this word stands in the Old Testament, especially in Psalm 119, for the divine law. … Testimony is frequently joined with ‘commandments’ (2 Kings 23:3) …. It is used emphatically for the two tables of the law.” This is a testimony from God in the flesh. It was His message when He came to Earth.

Christ said, “I receive not testimony [the same word used in Revelation 19:10] from man: but these things I say, that ye might be saved” (John 5:34). Christ’s testimony didn’t come from a man. It is perfect and it’s in the spirit of prophecy. 

 

Thayer’s further amplifies this word: “[T]he testimony of Christ is that which He gives concerning divine things, of which He alone has thorough knowledge … that testimony which He gave concerning future events relating to the consummation of the Kingdom of God ….” That is prophetic testimony! 

 

It is critical that we, like Christ, understand and have the spirit of prophecy!

The article is a huge slobber fest of idolatry to Herbert Armstrong and quotes HWA at every chance they can get. It also makes the excuse for why Flurry left the mother church to start his own group. Of course, it is an attack of Tkach Sr. and high praises for the most significant moment in PCG's history when Lil'Stevie read Flurry's plagiarized Malachi's Message.

After Mr. Armstrong died, terrible spiritual destruction fell on the Church. God started that famine, exactly as Mr. Armstrong prayed it would. And look at what has happened since. “And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit” (verse 18). On July 16, 1989, exactly 3½ years later, my son read Malachi’s Message. The latter rain started at that time, and “brought forth her fruit.” We are that fruit! One man prayed to God and changed the course of everything. Look at the fruits of that prayer. We are here because of Mr. Armstrong’s prayer and God’s blessing. We have all kinds of marvelous new truths God has given—truth that God and Mr. Armstrong didn’t want the Worldwide Church of God to ever have again. He raised up the Philadelphia Church of God to receive God’s new revelation.

Imagine basing your church on demented writings of Jules Dervaes that Flurry plagiarized and the fact that Lil'Stevie read it. It can't get any crazier, except maybe for Bob Theil's fantastical reasons on why he formed his group.

Only one wcg minister continued for about six months to deliver the truth of God. Eventually, he too caved in and accepted wrong doctrines. If you were in the spirit of prophecy, you would never follow that church because they were teaching “Prophesy not”! That’s no small mistake—it’s rejecting God and His law and our testimony. 

 

Mr. Armstrong knew what that leadership was all about. He knew Mr. Tkach was not going to lead God’s true Church. And he saw to it that he didn’t receive any new revelation. He saw an evil that he hadn’t seen six days before. 

 

We are dealing with those who are “according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders.” We are in a war against that evil being, and Satan is in his worst wrath ever. That is what we are fighting against. Being in a war can result in a lot of persecution. This is why we must understand the spirit of prophecy. 

 

Know We Are at War 

 

Prophecy describes Mr. Tkach being in the bonds of Satan and his son being a spiritual Antiochus. God says these men are liars, and He’s going to expose them. These ministers were in the synagogue of Satan (Revelation 3:9). Satan is the father of liars and a murderer from the beginning because there is no truth in him (John 8:44).

Propehcy has absolutely nothing to say about Tkach, Flurry, Thiel, or any of the other looney tunes leading COG's today other than the fact the Bible states that false prophets will arise to deceive many.

Flurry then gets to the gist of what the spirit of prophecy is in the church and it does not involve church members. It's all about him. and corporate prophecy.

This little group, with a powerful message going around the world, believes in the spirit of prophecy! If you are in the spirit of prophecy and you have the testimony of Jesus Christ, you see the future and you know it is worth any trial we have to endure. 

 

With the spirit of prophecy, you understand that we have a spectacular future when Christ returns. “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). We are going to be like God! What a stirring God Family potential!

There's that "we will be gods" myth, again.

He then moves on to his favorite book in the Bible, Lamentations. Not anything that concerns Jesus but a book filled with death and destruction. Hell yeah!

Lamentations is the most horrifying book in the Bible! Some of it is tough to read. It’s not something you sit and read before going to sleep—it would keep you up all night! But it is talking about real events that are going to happen to Israel. For example, Lamentations 4:10 talks about the “compassionate women” of Israel boiling their own children for food! (Revised Standard Version). The Laodicean churches are going to experience that! Unparalleled punishment is coming on God’s own Church! They are self-righteous and lukewarm. They can sound chic today proclaiming their messages of “love,” but they won’t be doing that when Lamentations is fulfilled! God will force them to face their rebellion!

A little later he writes:

The book of Lamentations is a funeral dirge—a poem of the most intense grief and mourning. Yet we must remain encouraged. You need the spirit of prophecy to put all this into perspective. This book makes clear that God will do what it takes to bring members into His Family. If you lack the spirit of prophecy, then you won’t see the beautiful bigger picture in this book—God building His Family!

He does mention Jesus a couple times, but only as it fits his warmongering of death and destruction of the Laodiceans:

The spirit of prophecy is filled with hope. How could Jesus Christ endure the suffering of being marred more than any man—how could He be crucified—if He weren’t in the spirit of prophecy? He knew He was to be a King! He was born to rule this Earth and this universe under His Father. Nobody could stop Him from fulfilling that destiny! 

 

We must have the testimony of Jesus Christ. If we are going to be like Christ and get through severe persecution, we need the spirit of prophecy!

Only Flurry's group has any hope of being the "elect".

But look how God describes His very elect: “The precious sons of Zion, worth their weight in fine gold, how they are reckoned as earthen pots, the work of a potter’s hands!” (verse 2; rsv). What powerful poetry! 

 

If you want to be a “precious son of Zion,” you must let the master potter shape and mold you! We are simply the clay in the potter’s hands. This is a powerful truth. These are people who give everything they have to God’s Work. How precious that is! 

 

Live in the spirit of prophecy! If you can get this wonderful vision in mind, there is nothing like it and never will be anything better on Earth during this age of man’s rule! Allow that to stir genuine hope in your life and to stir your motivation and fire your imagination. Give everything to God, even your life if that is required. That is the perfection of beauty! That is what God loves.

While Flurry tells his followers to have the spirit of prophecy it is only to be the prophecies revealed by him or Lil'Stevie after Flurry dies.  It is all about corporate propehcy and has nothing to do with any "spirit" of prophecy. Members are to be subservient and NOT believe they can have the spirit of prophecy.

Can you imagine what would happen if one of Flurry's members popped up and said they had a prophecy from God? They would be out the door so fast they would know what happened. Flurry's "spirit of propehcy" schtick is that his followers develop the understanding that Flurry's prophecies are true. That's the only "gift" they need to have.

There is no need for a prophet to be in the New Covenant church. One can easily see that this is true considering the mishmash of demented weirdo's currently lying to the church in 2021.

MALACHI’S MESSAGE: HOW TRUE IS IT?

The PLAIN TRUTH About Malachi’s Message And THAT PROPHET

Living Armstrongism: Reading Malachi's Message: Part 1 (links to Part 2,3,4 are at the end of the posting)

The Painful Truth: Flurry the Fony?

Philadelphia Church of God Doctrinal Changes

Dervaes: Urban Hippy Armstrongite Cultists In News Again

NY Daily News: ‘Doomsday Preppers’ looks at grim survivalist world

 
Armstrongism's much mocked urban hippy family is in the news again.  National Geographic is premiering a new 10 part series starting this week about " Doomsday Preppers" and our very own urban preppers, the Dervaes family is included. 

Armstrognism has always had a fringe element that secretly prepared for the end times.  They stored food, bought guns, and some even moved to remote locations in order to be away from civilization as much as possible.  It was conspiracy theories of Gary North in the late 70's, it was The Protocols of Zion, it was Visions of Fatima, the Illuminati, and the myriad of failed prophecies by Herbert Armstrong, Gerald Waterhouse and Rod Meredith that scared the crap out of members.

The Dervaes family has been in the news a lot over the years.  It's like they prostitute themselves out for the next news reporter or interview.  What most of these reporters don't realize is that these people are not just mere urban homesteaders, they are the result of aberrant religious teaching of an American doomsday cult.

Herbert Armstrong, Gerald Waterhouse, Dean Blackwell, and others spent seven decades of delivering earth shattering scenarios on how the world was coming to an end, because God was going to punish the United States and the British Commonwealth nations.

Literal reading of Bible scriptures has distorted these people with all kinds of doom and gloom scenarios.  The Dervaes family did not set out to be urban homesteaders that would be plastered all over the Internet and news media.  They set out over 25 years ago to prepare to lower their standard of living and to separate themselves from the world.  When the end comes (or a major natural disaster) and the cities are in chaos, power is down, grocery stores are depleted, money is worthless, then these people will be taking care of themselves and those they have chosen to part of their inner circle.  For the Dervaes it will be those that subscribe to the tenants of pre-1986 Armstrongism.

The other thing that the Dervaes hope from all this media prostitution, is that they will have a chance to get the "true gospel" message out at sometime in the future.  After the Dervaes started becoming 'famous'  Jules took down his Armstrongism pages and moved them elsewhere.  While people looked at them as sustainability  nutcases, they did not want the added baggage of being accused of being religious nutcases too.  All of that will change when bad things start to happen and Jules finds a platform to preach again.

Lord spare us!

The problem is, an aberrant dingbat religion is 100% behind their activities.

Check out Silenced for more on the story:  COG Nuts on Doomsday Preppers





Urban Hippy Armstrongites Still Causing Controversy

"Dingbat Dervaes" Urban Homesteaders Continue to be Mocked By Pasadenans

Extreme Armstrongism: "Urban Homesteaders' Threaten To Sue

Wikipedia also keeps alive the religions connection of the Dervaes. Jules Dervaes

ht: Jace

Urban Hippy Armstrongites Still Causing Controversy

Several years ago we had an employee in the Landscape Department at Ambassador College in Pasadena who went off the deep end.  So much so he was quickly terminated.  Once that happened he started weekly protests with his van parked Green Street, St. John Ave and on Del Mar by the tennis courts.  He drug his wife and kids out to protest with him for many months carrying picket signs. Later he just resorted to parking the van plastered with magnetic signs.  He became the laughing stock of the church and neighborhood.


Later his wife left because of his weird actions.  He rambled on in a house close by Orange Grove and Fair Oaks where he start growing food in his backyard.  All of this was a result of the aberrant teachings of Armstrongism that the world was coming to and end and that members needed lower their standard of living and to become self sufficient  because they were going to be persecuted for being Sabbath keepers.

Jules Dervaes actually became quite good at being self sufficient, so much so that he started getting recognized in papers and the news.  Restaurants started buying his organic greens.  Groups toured his gardens and his home. He would use bicycles to make power, tried to use as little electricity as possible and so on.

As he became more popular the bigger his head got until early last year he filed for copyright over the words "urban homesteaders."  He claimed that he and his family had originated the concept and that those who used the words were taking the spotlight and income away from hm.  The crap quickly hit the fan.  He sent letters of "cease and desist" to everyone they could find across the country that used "urban homestead" in their blogs, web sites, books, movies, etc.  He contacted Facebook and caused hundreds of Facebook pages to be shut down because of those two words. The Dervaes went into combat mode  and bucked down for a fight.

People hit back fast at them.  New Facebook pages were set up. Internet sites went after them.  See
Dervaes Family "Urban Homestead" Trademark Debacle and The Journey: Homesteading Forums.

The "Debacle" blog has this:

UPDATED, 3:39 P.M.: The Dervaeses have responded by saying this controversy is really just a conspiracy by critics. "It's a false, made up claim that people are jumping over themselves to make us look bad," blogs Anais Dervaes, before giving everyone the courtesy of publishing the cease-and-desist letter they're sending around to bloggers and libraries. The letter actually has suggestions for people to stop using the terms "urban homestead" and "urban homesteading"!

"If your use of one of these phrases is not to specifically identify products or services from the Dervaes Institute, then it would be proper to use generic terms to replace the registered trademark you are using," the letter states. "For example, when discussing general homesteading or other people's projects, they should be referred to using terms such as 'modern homesteading,' 'urban sustainability projects,' or similar descriptions."
Nice--not only are they faux hippies, but now they want to play the Though Police. WEAK SAUCE.

UPDATED, 2:15 P.M.: Harriet Ells, producer for KCRW-FM 89.9's Good Food With Evan Kleiman (for which I contribute) just tweeted that the Dervaeses sent them a cease-and-desist letter because they used the term in a blog post. The irony of this, of course, is that Kleiman joined the family for a meal last summer as part of an episode for Private Chefs of Beverly Hills. They also sent a cease-and-desist letter to the Santa Monica Public Library because the library hosted a free event on urban homesteading. What douches!

 Then to make things more interesting one of Dervaes girls plagiarized another web site using that information as their own.  See:  How the Dervaes Family Stole My Victory Garden

As a writer I value my work even when others do not.  A few years ago I wrote an impassioned plea to “Bring Back Victory Gardens”.  Because my website did not receive a great deal of traffic at the time (I wasn’t yet the amazing rockstar garden author that I am today) and I believed that plea worthy of more exposure, I created this page on HubPages in the hope that it would draw more attention.  Little did I know until this morning that it drew more than just attention, it drew a thief in urban homesteader’s clothing.

While being directly quoted is flattering as all hell, being stolen from is not. When your words are stolen by a member of the Dervaes Family and used as their own, it is even more flattering in a roundabout way.  How is it that the family who are the self-proclaimed founders of the urban homestead movement couldn’t even find the original words to describe what they do? 

 Michael Nolan concludes with this:

Listen Up, Dervaes Family

You have bullied the gardening and urban homesteading community long enough.  I’m not bothering with a cease and desist letter because it is far more satisfying to expose you for the unoriginal frauds that you are and let the people decide who they want to believe.  Thankfully I have been a part of this community long enough to know that its members are not the sheep you take them for and your time of pulling the wool over their eyes has come and gone.
Sincerely,
Michael Nolan
EDITED TO ADD: In an ironic twist, Dervaes Family Member Justin (do I need a trademark symbol here?) wrote this blog post on plagiarism somehow preaching about it and its impact just a few days ago.  Maybe he should converse with his sister…

An attorney weighs in on the Dervaes actions in  August of last year:   Urban Homestead as a Trademark & Cancellations

Being ethical in Armstrongism has never been a strong point.  Its leaders have been some of the most unethical men men ever.  They have lied, they have manipulated, they have connived and they blackmailed people for decades.  Is it any wonder that we see this kind of stuff carrying over into the membership?  Armstrongism has had legal counsel that made mincemeat of anyone that tried to sue the church or it's leaders.  People were defamed and ripped to shreds by these men.  Now we see how it all trickled down to the membership.  Just further proof that Armstrongism is rotten to the core.

In case any of you want to buy the Dervaes Homesteading calendar please note the following stipulation:

A day of rest, a Sabbath request. We ask that wherever you may live to refrain from purchasing from this website between Friday sunset and Saturday sunset. Little Homestead in the City® 2012 Calendar

.I can be guaranteed that they will NOT refund your money and will gladly take it.  Just more hypocrisy from the cult of Armstrongism

"Dingbat Dervaes" Urban Homesteaders Continue to be Mocked By Pasadenans

Movie: Home Grown Revolution

Once more the craziness that Armstrongism brings out in people is exposed for all the world to see!

Jules Dervaes continues to be mocked after his recent spate of threats against anyone using the name "Urban Homesteaders".  Dervaes was a former Pasadena WCG employee who went off the deep end and spent a year or more picketing and protesting the Worldwide Church of God.

He and his family moved into a small bungalow off or Orange Grove Blvd where they started doing back year farming, using bicycles to power their mixers and blenders and taking only one shower a week to save on water.

Larry Wilson from the Pasadena Star News rips the family a new one over their stupid legal challenges:

Larry Wilson: Legal Dirt of Pasadena's Farming Dervaes Family

I've never darkened the Dervaes family door, although I may be the only Southern California journalist not to have paid a visit to the farm in the city that Jules Dervaes and his daughters and son have made both an agricultural and media phenomenon. Living (almost) off the grid, pedaling a stationary bike to run the Mixmaster when a farmhand feels like a smoothie, showering but once a week to keep the water bill down - doesn't matter that the story's been done, over and over. It's a great story.

And now, it's a creepy one, because of a weird linguistic power grab.

Though the term "urban homestead" has been around the formerly wild West at least since the halcyon working-hippie days of the Whole Earth Catalog four decades ago, the Dervaes are attempting to copyright it, along with "urban homesteading," claiming sole right to be able to use those words. Or at least to use them without the stupid "R" in a circle that signifies English that had been part of the commonweal is now owned by some joker or another. (An affectation you don't have to use, by the way. "Rose Parade" is a copyrighted term, for instance. The TofR uses the "R" to keep its claim live; the rest of us don't have to.)

After the family succeeded in intimidating Facebook into shutting down others using the term, the wonderfully droll Gustavo Arellano of the OC Weekly reports a new Facebook site, Take Back Urban Home-steading(s), is fighting against what he terms the "dingbat Dervaes." I just went there and found almost 2,000 "friends." Typical comment: "I am deeply disappointed that these folks, whom I previously admired, are causing so much grief for people who have been using the phrase for years."

The Dervaes apparently have resorted to bullying tactics and bullied Facebook into taking down other "Urban Homesteader" site.  One person the Dervaes succeeded in getting kicked off of Facebook has started a new page to protest the "dingbat Dervaes".

 Take Back Urban Home-steading(s) 

This page has evolved into an organic expression of the urban homesteading community and our quest for keeping the words which define who we are as a movement and community germane to all of us. In a real way we're advocating for one another; we're discussing, networking, organizing for change, creating events, and expanding our vast and original knowledge of urban homesteading. We're finding new formats in spreading the word that we ARE urban homestead, and that nobody can copyright our identity, which belongs to all of us.

The Derveas family has recently trademarked the terms "Urban Homestead" and "Urban Homesteading." These terms can no longer be used in facebook page titles, or on blogs or otherwise for profit. If you use the term not for profit you must use the trademark symbol and "specifically identify products or services from the Dervaes Institute." They add that it would be "proper to use generic e=terms such as "modern homesteading." They have had facebook pages with the terms Urban Homestead and Urban Homesteading in the name shut down without notifying those pages first. Please join this group to show that UH is not a brand or company, but a grassroots community and lifestyle. 

There are  loads of other links on this Facebook page (above) from people challenging the Dervaes.

Extreme Armstrongism: "Urban Homesteaders' Threaten To Sue

The Pasadena headquarters of the Worldwide Church of God has always attracted and produced really weird people.  Over the years we have had loads of picketers protesting in front of the Hall of Ad, men and women on arriving proclaiming they were apostles or that they were Elijah with a message to the church, and members who go off the deep end, like a lady who came up to me at church one Saturday proclaiming she had snakes in her head that were eating her brain away.

Our most enduring and longest active protester/picketer was Jules Dervaes.  He used to be an employee of the Landscaping Department in Pasadena.  Something ticked him off and he started protesting the church by parking his van outside the property boundaries. The van would be moved to different locations, in front of the Hall of Ad, on St. John behind the auditorium and down by the tennis courts on Del Mar.

 

He would haul his family out to picket with signs.  You could tell his wife and kids hated it.  His wife later left him because of all the nuttiness. Like a true Armstrognite he refused medical treatment for his kids, kept strict legalistic rule sin his life and his kids and other silliness.

Jules also later proclaimed that Gerald Flurry, cult leader of the Philadelphia Church of God, had stolen his writings and incorporated them in to Malachi's Message.

Jules web site is chocked full of visions and messages to those who are part of the various splinter cults of the COG.  Crazy stuff! The HiddenYears    Some of the web sites out there compare him to David Koresch in regards to his radical religious views.

Jules is also noted for his garden in the back of his house over off of Orange Grove close to Fair Oaks.  He has made his land behind the house into an 'urgan garden'. They do everything organically and supply local restaurants with fresh produce and have sent things to Oprah for television shots.

Here is an article from The Telegraph in the UK  The Dervaeses of Pasadena: Poster Family for Greener Living

For some reason Jules has decided that he owns the legal right to use the term 'urban homstead' and is now out threatening legal action against all ho use it.
Various articles about the use of the name are here:

Getting Pecked

LA Times: Who Is the True Urban Homesteader?

Dervaes Institute Seeks to Shed Light on Trademark Rumors


Because of his silly threats about using the name he is now starting to get a backlash:

Urban Homestead, Urban Homestead, Urban Homestead
Urban Homesteader. Urban Homesteader, Urban Homesteader