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

The Holy Child Who Resides In The PCG

In the Church of God history, there have been few sons of leaders that ever made their father proud and where they became second in command in their father's work.  Garner Ted did for a while till he couldn't keep his pants zipped and then turned on his father. Rod Meredith's boys (from both marriages) have been absolute failures when it comes to morality and leadership skills and were so bad Meredith had to bring in Gerald Weston. Dave Pack's boys left the church their father started. Joseph Tkach's son went on to lead the Worldwide Church of God into a new version of the church that no one ever imagined.

This brings us to Stephen Flurry, the most holy child of Gerald Flurry. A man/boy so significant that PCG youth are told the amazing story on how Lil Stevie read Malachi's Message and the heavens opened up for him and his mind was opened to the truth. To this day, Herbert W Armstrong College takes its students and church youth to Robbers Cave where they commemorate this historically spiritual event. They even gaze in awe at the cabin Lil'Stevie stayed in during that glorious time when the angels in heaven rejoiced at the lost child returning to the father.

As God was revealing Malachi’s Message, my children were at Ambassador College in Pasadena, California—my daughter, Laura, in her senior year; my son, Stephen, in his freshman year. That was where I felt they could get the best education on this Earth. But I became increasingly uneasy as I detected the wrong direction the leaders were taking God’s Church. Both of them were alerted to problems in the Church. I convinced Stephen to continue his education at the Ambassador campus at Big Sandy, Texas, closer to where I was in Oklahoma. 

 

That summer, on his way to Big Sandy, my son visited us in Oklahoma. I picked him up at the airport and took him immediately to our July 14 weekend church campout at Robber’s Cave, Okla. (My son was keeping a diary at the time, and recorded these events.) It was a tense weekend, because I had a rough draft of Malachi’s Message with me that I had decided to share with my son. When I gave it to him on that Sabbath, he was the first to see it, and I was very concerned about how he would respond. 

 

Some others in the Church were already suspicious about what I was doing. Stephen was also slightly unsure of where I was spiritually and didn’t read my manuscript immediately (on July 15)—he didn’t want to be accused of blindly following his dad. 

 

We need to remember that Mr. Armstrong had provided strong leadership in the Church for 57 years. We were usually suspicious of anybody who spoke against Church headquarters—that includes me! Anybody who left the Church in that period was considered to be rebelling against God. Also, Stephen’s teachers at Ambassador College had been teaching against “heretics.” 

 

So I waited in vain, and rather tensely, on that Sabbath day for my son to read Malachi’s Message.
Finally, my son read the rough draft of Malachi’s Message on Sunday, July 16, 1989—exactly 3½ years after Mr. Armstrong died! My son was positive in what he said, but he didn’t say much. I could tell he had been sobered by what he read. The sanctuary had already been cleansed, but it took a few months before that rain began to reach beyond the altar, or ministry.

For me to give Malachi’s Message to my son placed a heavy responsibility on him. I knew this was going to be a test for my son. When something like that happens, we have to make the right decision! Clearly, the way God viewed it, that was a far more significant moment than it would have appeared. 

 

Young people, realize: My son really wrestled with that choice—as probably any unbaptized person would have. He loved college, yet here was his dad doing something that many members dismissed as rank rebellion! God made him choose—just as He makes each of us choose. It would have been so easy to turn away from God at that point and to miss all the blessings. But if we make the right choice, God can accomplish tremendous things in our lives! We must always strive to get ourselves out of the way and let God lead us.  

In the summer of 1992, three years after my son made that choice, I received the understanding that Malachi’s Message was actually the “little book” spoken of in the 10th chapter of Revelation. (This truth is explained in our free booklet The Little Book.) I first delivered this revelation at our Philadelphia Youth Camp that summer. That is the only time I have given new revelation to a group of unbaptized young people. I didn’t make that choice, God did!  Gerad Flurry: Robbers Cave And New Revelation

As I mentioned above, students go to Robbers Cave every year to commemorate this historical event. 

Robbers Cave in Wilburton, Oklahoma (Grant Turgeon) 

 

Robbers Cave can provide any number of things for Herbert W. Armstrong College students: a much-needed rest from the rigors of college life, a respite from the bustle of our interconnected society, time for reflection on the site’s integral role in the Philadelphia Church of God’s history, appreciation for creation, strong bonds within the college family, an improved relationship with God, or a life-turning point. Never mind the lack of heating, “actual beds,” or pleasant shower conditions, as some might point out. What's it like at 'Robbers Cave'

In England/Scotland they have "Robbers Cave Sunday"

‘Robbers Cave’ in Galloway, Scotland (Paris Turgeon) 

 

We got back from ‘Robbers Cave’ Sunday evening. It’s odd calling it that because comparatively, it was nothing like our usual Oklahoma Robbers Cave experience. I could go into detail about how we had heat and actual beds, and that I didn’t have to wear flip-flops in the shower, etc., but that seems unfair. I will just say that it was a different experience—a wonderful, beautiful, mesmerizing experience.

Idolatry is nothing new in the Philadelphia Church of God, but the absurdity of this is hilarious. It would be like Bob Thiel having a Feast site in Arroyo Grande where everyone comes to his home and stares at the holy place he has his dreams and thumps his big fat bible. The sad thing is that there are enough stupid people in his church that would do that.

EDMOND—“So what do you think?” the minister asked when his son paused while reading the manuscript. “Well, that definitely will get you fired,” his son responded.” It was July 1989, and the young 19-year-old was on a Y.E.S. camping trip with his father at Robbers Cave in southeastern Oklahoma during the summer break. But this turned out to be more than your everyday summer camping excursion. It became a pivotal moment in the history of God’s Church and marked Robbers Cave State Park as an important historical location for the Philadelphia Church of God.

Right there, in that cabin at Robbers Cave Campsite Number One, the revelation in Malachi’s Message was being shared for the first time. After the death of Mr. Armstrong, the Worldwide Church of God was being torn apart; yet off in remote rural Oklahoma, the first person besides Mr. Gerald Flurry was learning God’s revelation about what was really happening.

“I think I still have the first manuscript I received after we printed the first 1,000 [copies of Malachi’s Message ],” Mr. Stephen Flurry said. “But as for that stack of typewritten papers he handed me that weekend at Robbers Cave, I’m not sure where those ended up.”

“Its content certainly rang true,” he wrote in Raising the Ruins, “it was inspiring in fact—but I couldn’t yet commit to accepting the material without first digging into Mr. Armstrong’s foundational teachings. [My dad] agreed the content would undoubtedly get him fired. But believing it was from God, he fully intended to deliver the message to church leaders in Pasadena.”

The manuscript indeed got then-Preaching Elder Gerald Flurry fired on Dec. 7, 1989. The Philadelphia Church of God was raised up less than five months after Malachi’s Message was first delivered to his son at that wooded campsite. Because of this history-shaping event, Robbers Cave has become a significant landmark for the pcg. Herbert W. Armstrong College has retreated to the campsite almost every year since 2002, and Mr. Stephen Flurry has never missed a campout.

Every year, he returns to the campsite with his family and dozens of others whose lives were also changed by that book he was the first to read nearly 25 years ago: Malachi’s Message.
A Significant Hisotoric Landmark

All of this is made even more pathetic considering Gerald Flurry stole the entire book from Jules Dervaes who was widely distributing it in Pasadena in 1986.  See: The Letter to Laodicea

Just like everyone else in Armstrongism, new and upcoming COG leaders do not have an original concept in their heads and have to plagiarize or rewrite other's booklets and articles. Gerald Flurry is particularly crafty in this.

PCG worships a stupid book that they say has a rightful place next to the Bible, alongside Mystery of the ages. PCG, like most other COG's place their emphasis upon the holy words of their prophets and apostles and shove Jesus onto the back burner where he stays until Passover each year when they reluctantly drag him out so they can crucify him over and over year after year. Then, as soon as Passover is over, he goes back into the closet in the local Masonic Lodge or some school gym, where he remains hidden till the following year where he is seldom ever mentioned again. 

Every day we wake up the COG sinks further into madeness.