Philadelphia Church of God: Murmuring Ministers Rebelling Against King Flurry and the Sons of Zadok

 

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.

Gerald Flurry sinks even lower as he uses the term "Sons of Zadok" as a weapon to stop the murmuring of ministers and members against his silliness and the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on these productions that are nothing more than a showcase of Jude Flurry and Flurry's other grandkids. Hundreds of thousands of dollars have gone into building dance studios, using the church jet to fly his grandkids across the world for Irish dance competitions, building elaborate staging and transporting it to Tennesee and South Dakota in order to witness to the world the true dance of God and help usher in the millennial reign of their "christ".

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:

The Fighting Sons of Zadok

The Sons of Zadok and the New Throne

Sons of Zadok

 

LCG has personel neeeds after so many ministers and employees go with Church of God Assembly

Living Church of God's recent debacle with Sheldon Monson has created quite a few job openings in Charlotte. Of course, Gerald Weston is claiming this is because of a dramatic rise in new people interested in joining the church thanks to a new way of doing things with prospective members. For decades the Church of God has made it almost impossible for new people to check out the church and attend services. If you made it past the Gestapo agents of the church then you had to deal with overzealous deacons and deaconesses making the life of new members horrendously awkward.

Now Gerald Weston wants to put on a new face for the public and stop grilling interested people. Too little too late, buckwheat! 

Church of God News had this up:

Gerald Weston reports a big increase in the number of people wanting to attend services, as a result of a change of approach, no longer vetting new people so much. 

 

“In the last quarter, July-September, we had more people request to come to Sabbath services than any quarter since the Living Church of God began – that exceeded our 2015 record by 36%. Now there’s a reason for that. It isn’t just the normal situation. We have changed the way, what we require of people when they ask about Sabbath services. For example, when they go online, we used to ask a lot of questions that were unnecessary. And so we’ve cut it down to the bare minimum … We want to screen them a little bit. We don’t want some nut out here coming to services, someone who’s going to be causing a disruption, but we want to be a little bit more friendly and, for those people who are more shy about giving out information … We don’t want to scare them off before we have a chance to engage them. We do ask them about why they came to the decision to attend services, but that’s optional, and that comes after we already have some other essential information.”

Later on the COGNews site, it had this little bit which I saw in LCG's announcements last week,  and we had fun with it here. Weston also wants us to believe that there is such a huge influx of new members that they need to hire new employees. However, the real cause may be that Charlotte has lost employees and ministers to the Church of God Assembly. If so, it is freakin hilarious!

Gerald Weston writes: “We have significant personnel needs and are working to fill some of those positions in the field ministry and in understaffed departments here in Charlotte. 

 

Beginning in 2021, the Tomorrow’s World English-language magazine will increase from six issues (one every other month) to ten issues per year. This is a major step forward! This will give subscribers more regular contact with the Church. We will drop four pages, from 36 down to 32, and make some other alterations, but overall there will be more content each year.” 

 

Why has such a large proportion of ministers and HQ staff left (for Church of God Assembly?) that LCG now has significant personnel needs? Disquiet among employees is not recent but goes back to the time of Roderick Meredith, who employed members of his family in positions which appeared not to be merited. He also showed partiality toward people he knew and liked, such as the three who joined from David Hulme’s church, and were immediately employed as full time ministers – and exactly one year later all three were promoted, much to the dismay of long-time ministers.

What does it mean to be persecuted? Certain COG Leaders Love To Proclaim They Are Being Persecuted When They Get Called Out

What does it mean to be persecuted?

The leadership in many of the Armstrong Churches of God frequently claim that they are being persecuted because of the message they preach. They are in good company among U.S. Evangelicals in this regard. In short, they don't like the fact that some folks have characterized their messages as racist, homophobic or contrary to the spirit of Christ; and they call this persecution. In other words, any effort to denigrate or limit the appeal of their message is regarded by them as persecution. But is it really fair to characterize that as persecution?

Jesus Christ is reported to have said: "Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." - Matthew 5:10-12, NIV Notice that Christ differentiated between those who were to be persecuted "for righteousness' sake" and suffer as a consequence of false accusations, and those who would suffer for the sake of genuine wrongdoing. Moreover, this differentiation is reaffirmed in the First Epistle of Peter where the apostle is discussing the treatment of slaves. We read there: "For it is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God. But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God." - I Peter 2:19-20, NIV

Now my ACOG and Evangelical friends would say that they are standing up for righteousness when they advocate for the harsh treatment, imprisonment or death of homosexuals, abortionists and protestors; and they claim God's sanction for their persecution of these people. And, they have the audacity to claim persecution when someone dares to criticize them for doing it!

From a scriptural perspective, the kind of persecution that Christ and his followers experienced is not even comparable to what these ACOG and Evangelical leaders are claiming. Jesus wasn't simply criticized and insulted because of his message - HE WAS BEATEN AND PUT TO DEATH! Stephen was stoned to death! Paul was imprisoned for years and eventually executed! Indeed, when past persecutions of God's saints were discussed by the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, we read: "Some were jeered at, and their backs were cut open with whips. Others were chained in prisons. Some died by stoning, some were sawed in half, and others were killed with the sword. Some went about wearing skins of sheep and goats, destitute and oppressed and mistreated. They were too good for this world, wandering over deserts and mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the ground." - Hebrews 11:36-38 How many of these ACOG and Evangelical leaders have experienced these things?

Indeed, the way that the Greek word translated into English as "persecuted" is used in the writings known to us as the New Testament suggests people pursuing someone to the death! In other words, real persecution is indicative of an existential threat to the one being persecuted. And, as far as I can tell, none of these ACOG or Evangelical leaders have been imprisoned or put to death yet (at least, not for the sake of the messages they are preaching). On the other hand, the Yazidi people or Chinese Christians would certainly be justified in claiming persecution. However, a little criticism for what many folks would consider the persecution of others, does not even approach the level of real persecution. Even if we consider the targets of these folks to be "evil," we are hard-pressed to find any scriptural justification for persecuting them. In fact, isn't the proper role of a minister of Jesus Christ to seek that which was lost and to bind up the brokenhearted?

Hence, as long as these folks continue to peddle their hate-filled messages about "sinners", they should expect to be challenged by others. My advice to them: Stop whining about persecution and put on your big boy pants and get ready for some tough talk!

Miller Jones/Lonnie Hendrix