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.
