Philadelphia Church of God mouthpiece Joel Hilliker wrote an article that was published on the PCG web site during the Feast of Tabernacles. Joel has a long standing reputation from many who have been in his classes for being many watt's short of a bright light bulb. He has had no education outside the cult system of Flurry/Armstrongism. Reading excerpts below from his article will make that painfully obvious.
Gerald Furry and the PCG go to great lengths in ridiculing the Pope and the Catholic church of its power/revelation structure. Through that haze of theological idiocy Hilliker and the rest of the PCG look upon Gerald Furry in the exact same way the loyal Catholics do the Pope.
- All governmental power emanates from God through Gerald Flurry to those below him. The Pope is the spiritual leader of the church and all under him.
- All revealed knowledge and prophetic utterances come through Flurry directly from God. All revealed knowledge comes through the Pope and is given to the church.
- As Mary is an intermediary between humans and God, so is Herbert Armstrong an intermediary between humans and the "truth once restored." That truth cannot be understood without knowing who Herbert Armstrong was and reading his words.
- The Catholic Church is the true church of God. The Philadelphia Church of God is the true church of God.
Given that, Hilliker writes to the membership of the PCG telling them about what life will be like in the Kingdom of God, specially for the elite who live on the cult Compound in Edmond, OK. Flurry as taught all these people that since they are the true Church and God is working solely with them, and that they are the true government of God on earth today, it is only natural that the Kingdom of God will include them in its power structure.
Hilliker writes:
God has always been headquarters minded. The temporal headquarters of His Work on Earth points people toward Him, and His dwelling place in the third heaven. It projects our minds forward to the time when God the Father Himself will descend to Earth and govern the universe from here! In truth, God Himself is headquarters!
Like Herbert Armstrong, Flurry believes that God wants his cult compound to be the "light of the world" or in Dave Pack's case, the "city upon the hill." God has made COG cult compounds God's chosen properties in the world today.What an extraordinary vision is wrapped up in headquarters, the place where God dwells. God always wants His headquarters to be a bright beacon of light to the world! He wants people's minds tied in to where the Head is.
Flurry likes to use David, just as HWA did, in justifying the construction of opulent money sucking monstrosities dedicated to god. If the building is dedicated to God then the membership would complain as much about it as they would if it was called Gerald Flurry Auditorium.In the days of King David, the headquarters of God's chosen nation was in Jerusalem. David wanted to build God a house there that would be "exceeding magnifical"—so magnificent that its splendor would actually bring people to God.
God apparently inspired Flurry to build his monument to himself just like HWA was inspired to build his monument to himself. Both worked/work as hard as they can to impress the world around them Its important to these men to be seen as important.He instructed his son Solomon in that stirring headquarters vision, and Solomon built the temple. When the queen of Sheba visited, she was so impressed that she uttered, "Blessed be the Lord thy God"! (1 Kings 10:9). God's earthly headquarters pointed this queen to God, just as King David and God intended. She was moved to contribute wealth to this glorious project (verse 10). She left God's earthly headquarters inspired and filled with vision!
This is thee same message HWA forced upon the membership to fund his auditorium and opulent lifestyle. The lowly church members need to see what the finest things are in life in order to be prepared to live in the world tomorrow where riches will be for everyone. It does not matter that the PCG and other COG's suck the money out of members pockets to the point their live lives of poverty. They will receive their reward later in life so why worry about now.This same scene played out over and over. People came from all over to witness the magnificence of God's headquarters with their own eyes. Kings gave of their treasure, adding to the treasure the Israelites gave. Verse 14 shows that, in a single year, well over half a billion dollars' worth of gold (in today's value) came in!
Hilliker wants all loyal PCG members to know that the Edmond Compound is the most godly place on earth today. Everyone lives in a state of bliss and enlightenment 24/7:Physically, what we have at God's headquarters today isn't nearly so impressive. But spiritually, there is something far more impressive happening here. Visiting the headquarters of God's Church in Edmond, Oklahoma, is a special experience. You can sense God's Spirit here. It is a place of peace and joy. To God's people, it feels like home. And God ties us all in with it directly since we fund it through our offerings and contributions. This campus combines the collective energies of those who work here and our worldwide family of co-workers. We all have our role to play in making this the finest headquarters it can be. That's why it is so moving to God's people when they visit Edmond. We can get a sense of what stirred the queen of Sheba and others.
So what is that headquarters going to be like for the world at large? After God spanks the world with death and destruction, the PCG membership will kick into action. They will be constructing the kingdom of God where all people will come.That feeling of awe, respect, joy and peace we experience in Edmond is exactly the feeling that people the world over will have about God's headquarters on Earth in the World Tomorrow! And, once again, that headquarters will be Jerusalem.
The most important building in Flurry's kingdom will be the Temple located in Jerusalem:Once people have been humbled, we will begin to build in them a habit of focusing on God—and on God's headquarters. "God will reach into the lives of every repentant person on Earth—from Jerusalem" (ibid).
In the thirteen acre temple where God will have his management office, the membership of the PCG will also be living and having offices. Since they will be gods as God is now, it is only right that they get to an office next door to God. OF course this will not be any of the rank and file of the PCG, it will only be the elite from the compound in Edmond that will have their offices there.And the most prominent structure within Jerusalem will be the headquarters temple. The mountain of God's house will be established as the highest of the mountains, and exalted above the hills (Isaiah 2:2; Micah 4:1; Zechariah 8:3). The temple will dominate the landscape at the headquarters city, helping people look to where Christ is!
The Millennial Temple
The Prophet Ezekiel describes that temple in wonderful detail. It will be patterned after God's heavenly temple, the seat of His throne today. It will have a footprint of half a million square feet, occupying about 13 acres. That is where God's Philadelphians of today will live!
Flurry and his elite can't wait to be married to their HUSBAND where they can rule.The outer precinct around the temple, described in the last nine chapters of Ezekiel, will occupy about one square mile of land. The headquarters city itself will only be about 7½ miles square. Considering that it will be the command center for the whole world's system of governing, that is quite an efficient headquarters facility.
This "husband" thing starting to sweep through Armstrongism is weird and illogical. This is what happens when you take things as 100% literal instead of using it as a metaphor for something even deeper in meaning. Since Armstrongism is a totally superficial belief system, deep meaning cannot be found in it.What an exciting future we have to look forward to, living and working with our Husband in that headquarters facility. Being a priest at headquarters is a wonderful thing—even today. It is a great blessing to be stationed right in the middle of all the action. In that future headquarters, surely we will often shake our heads and say, What a privilege!
Only those loyal to Gerald Flurry and this cult HQ in this present age will be allowed to be in God's HQ. Then to show how even more illogical Flurry is, he says that ONLY LOYAL PCG members in this age will be able to have special aaccess to Jesus in the world tomorrow. They will be the ONLY ONES to have special access to come near to God.
PCG members will also be Real Estate agent in the World Tomorrow in Jerusalem. They will be maiking fortunes off those wanting to move to Jerusalem. I guess that is part of the reasons Lil'Stevie bought his condo over looking the Mount of Olives. He will get to see JC return and then be able to run his real estate agency from his condo.Those who remain loyal to God today will inhabit special rooms in the headquarters temple. Our offices will be near God's office. We will have special access to Christ—the only ones who come near to God (Ezekiel 40:45-46; 44:15-16). As His helpmeet, we will serve Him—seeing to His needs, helping Him directly.
PCG will also be producing "Envoy's for all the gullible sheep to buy. More money in their pockets!Surely many people will want to live close to headquarters. Jeremiah 32:43-44 show that there will be an active real-estate industry in the areas around Jerusalem—the buying and selling of property. It will be the choicest place to live on Earth.
PCG members are being trained today by being forced to send in tithes, offerings to the Compound. Members are told to sell homes, businesses and real estate in order to send it to Flurry so the Compound can be built even bigger. It is a training exercise for the world tomorrow.Perhaps films or broadcasts will circulate around the world showing the latest developments in the building project. Publications like our college envoys might display beautiful photos of the temple and surrounding structures, the colleges, the entertainment productions, the city life, the people in the streets who are heroes like David. All the emotion and enthusiasm we have for God's headquarters today in Edmond will be multiplied by thousands and millions worldwide!
Flurry and crew are also going to be running he travel industry in the world tomorrow. Withal those people flocking to Jerusalem someone needs to get them there and who better to do that than the PCG God's!We've been trained by God to exhibit that headquarters focus today! Just as our tithes, offerings, labor, building fund contributions and sacrifices enable the construction of the facilities in Edmond today, those offerings in the future are going to build Jerusalem!
There is even more silliness that attempts to prove as fact on what he imagines the New Jerusalem to be like. What more can you expect from a guy who has no real theological training. Being trained at the feet of a narcissistic man who is also theological bankrupt does not produce wisdom or understanding.Clearly, we are going to need a travel industry in the World Tomorrow! We'll need some forms of rapid transportation to get people from distant continents to Jerusalem.
You can read this pile of bullshit here: A Visit to Millennial Headquarters!