The other day we had a reader here make a comment that we "owe our lives" to Herbert Armstrong. I assume they believe that since he "restored all things" and that we are or were remember of his church that we were set apart for special salvation rewards, like being kings and priests ruling over nations and planets.
Another reader here, Concerned Sister responded with this:
10:39, HWA didn't "restore" anything. He lifted his teachings from various other men and other churchs' writings, didn't reveal or give credit to the earlier sources of his material and claimed these teachings as new revelations given to him by God. For proof of this compare his United States and Britain in Prophecy book with the earlier title Judah's Sceptre and Joseph's Birthright by J.H. Allen. In doing this, he not only denied these other sources credit where credit was due, but he also deceived and misled others into believing he had some direct link or inside track to inspired revelation from God, which he didn't have. He also promoted his own ideas of a prophetic timeline with specific players and when those predictions didn't come true he simply kicked the can further down the road and continued to promote his own speculations of times and players, drawing from whatever happened to be going on in the news at the time, and weaving those events into his predictions and narrative, promoting those things as part of his "gospel" message. By Biblical standards this made him a false prophet, period.
While there are many of us who make comments on this blog who still believe in keeping the Sabbath, etc., the idolozation of this man is one of the chief sins promoted and nurtured within many of the COG groups today. The idea that we somehow "owe" HWA our lives and need to dedicate ourselves to "his" teachings demonstrates this. We have replaced Jesus Christ with HWA. It is Jesus who saves, and Jesus who sacrificed Himself to pave a way for our redemption, and Jesus who is to be King of Kings and Lord of Lords, not HWA, or anyone else for that matter. If we "owe" anything to anyone, it would be Him, and His teachings are what we need to be dedicating our lives to. The teachings of anyone else must be evaluated against those.
I believe her comments above are spot on. Some COG leaders and many members have placed Herbert Armstrong on a pedestal and worship everything about the man.
Most of the larger splinter group leaders of the church use Herbert Armstrong as a lure to draw people in. They claim to be holding fast to everything he taught, but the fact is, each and every one of them has changed what he taught and either deleted things they did not like or added to it with "new revelations." These "new revelations" that Dave Pack, Bob Thiel, Ron Weinland, and Gerald Flurry have are necessary to cover up the lies they teach in order to impress their followers that these are divine revelations and dreams from their god. If Herbert Armstrong were alive today and heard the crap these guys say and preach he would kick them out of the church so fast their heads would be spinning.
Each one of the above apostate COG leaders has their own unique spin of idolatry about either HWA's teachings or their own selves and their "new revelations". None of them has taken this to a level of such depravity as Gerald Flurry has in the Philadelphia Church of God. Not only has he placed Herbert Armstrong on a pedestal but he has placed himself as the promise Elijah and King as the possessor of the holy rock of Herbert Armstrong, which he has renamed the true coronation stone. This is the very rock that his creature called "christ" will supposedly return to.
This delusional thinking has also led him to declare himself and his followers as "Sons of Zadok". As Sons of Zadok, they are also blessed with church members who carry on the holy dance of God through Irish dancing. this was all prophesied in the Bible for the end times that the church would be using Irish dancing as a light to the world to spread the words of Elijah and Zadok as they prance around the holy rock of HWA enshrined in a new coronation chair.
According to Gerald Flurry this rock of Herbert Armstrong, now encased in a royal throne for PCG's Celtic Throne production. will be the very rock that his "christ" will return to and sit upon as King of Kings...all thanks to Gerald Flurry continuing true church government and for possessing the true rock of Herbert. His "christ" needs these two things in order to return to earth as King of Edmond Oklahoma Kings.
Church of God News has this up:
Gerald Flurry is so weary of long-time members ‘murmuring and rebelling’, that he is condemning to eternal death those who continue to do so, and turning instead to PCG’s youth.
His latest revelation is for the ‘Sons of Zadok’ and their Irish dancing.
“In Moses’s day, God warned that those who didn’t stop murmuring and rebelling would die (Numbers 17:10). That is what God says to us spiritually. At some point you must stop the murmuring and rebelling, or you’re going to die! That is the opposite of the total trust God is building in His people. This is about eternal life and eternal death.”
“Enemies … will probably say people who hear a voice belong in insane asylums, and it is crazy to follow someone to a place of safety who says he is a king. They will compare us to cults like Jim Jones, which committed mass suicide.”
“Enemies … will probably say people who hear a voice belong in insane asylums, and it is crazy to follow someone to a place of safety who says he is a king. They will compare us to cults like Jim Jones, which committed mass suicide.” (PCG’s Royal Vision magazine, July-August 2020)
In the September-October 2020 issue, he gives his new revelation:
“God has given me new understanding about Ezekiel 43. This chapter is about the sons of Zadok. It is important for all of us – especially the sons of Zadok today – to understand what is revealed in this chapter.
This new revelation came two days after our youth arrived for the Summer Educational Program and two days after the last performance of our recent Irish dance production, Celtic Throne. God timed this precisely to show how important our youth are to Him! Ezekiel 43:7
7 He said, "Son of man, this is the place for my throne, the place I'll plant my feet. This is the place where I'll live with the Israelites forever. Neither the people of Israel nor their kings will ever again drag my holy name through the mud with their whoring and the no-god idols their kings set up at all the wayside shrines.
VERSE 7 OF EZEKIEL 43 BRINGS THE NEW THRONE RIGHT TO WHERE THE SONS OF ZADOK ARE …
We need to do like David did when he was bringing the ark back to Jerusalem: Dance with all our might, sing with all our might, get behind God’s work with all our might! It will change your life and change this Church!
You could see this in our Irish dance production of Celtic Throne
We had some of the sons of Zadok up on stage at God’s house dancing, singing and playing music with all their might, in the spirit of David! On the stage we had a throne with Herbert W. Armstrong’s prayer rock underneath it – the new stone of destiny, a symbol of Christ – there with the sons of Zadok! Everything revolved around that throne and stone. Celtic Throne was a production about God’s throne …
We are giving the world a picture of what it’s like when God has a Summer Educational Program for the youth, what it’s like when God has a college – what it’s like when God has a whole Church of the sons of Zadok! This world will ask us to show them what’s that like – and we will!”
Gerald Flurry issues a warning to the ‘murmuring’ elders in PCG:
“Notice what God records about the man who gave us the prayer rock:
Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of Jehovah come. And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers; lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. (Malachi 4:5-6).
This is the harshest warning in the Bible. God says about as strongly as He could, If these ministers don’t turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to the fathers, they are going to lose their eternal lives!”
If these murmuring ministers had any testicular fortitude they would publicly denounce the evil teachings and tell the people the truth about the lies of King Flurry. Jesus does not give a rats ass about some dirty old rock now enshrined in a holy chair. He is no more returning to this chair in Edmond Oklahoma than he is to the sacred grounds of Dave's Wadsworth, Ohio cult compound. One thing for sure is that whenever Jesus does return there will be at least two COG leaders who will experience something they never imagined.
Notice how the second part of the verse that King Flurry used to prove his throne to the members is not elaborated upon.
7 He said, "Son of man, this is the place for my throne, the place I'll plant my feet. This is the place where I'll live with the Israelites forever. Neither the people of Israel nor their kings will ever again drag my holy name through the mud with their whoring and the no-god idols their kings set up at all the wayside shrines.
If you are a follower of Christ instead of the little men in charge of various Churches of God you will understand that men like Gerald Flurry, Dave Pack, Bob Thiel, and Ron Weinland will never again have an opportunity to "drag my holy name through the mud with their whoring and the no-god idols".
The sad thing is in today's Church of God movement is that we do not have any men with testicular fortitude that will stand up and denounce the liars in charge of their own church or other COG's. Far too many of them feel that though they may be separated by church divisional walls they are united in the truth and that they should not denounce the ministries of other COG's.
With over 400 some splinter groups and more splintering off every month, the truth of the matter is that the COG is sick and rotten to the core because of its leaders. There is no unified Christ-like message being brought to the world around them.
The world sees nothing attractive about the god that most of the COG's worship, even better is most COG members don't even see anything attractive about that "christ" anymore! That is why so many are leaving the church. Members are exhausted in trying to keep up with the demands and ludicrous teachings of self-appointed Elijah's, dreamers, prophets, and apostles now claiming leadership in the church.
When you look around the world and see the horrible persecution Christians deal with in so many Muslim nations with bombings of churches, beheadings, rapes of young women and mothers, and all the other horrible things they deal with and yet through it all they never waiver in their faith and find comfort in a Christ who says he says he carries their burdens.
Matthew 11:28-30
COME TO ME, AND I WILL GIVE YOU REST
28 "Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me - watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."
This is not the "christ" of any of the Churches of God. So go ahead and murmur against the players leading the Churches of God. Expose them and call out their hypocrisy. Better yet, leave their groups and find true freedom! Hundreds of thousands have over the last 9 decades and more do so every day!
To read more of the lunacy of Gerald Flurry and the "Sons of Zadok" teaching, in his own words, check these out:
