Armstrongism is not known for its pure religion and sound theology and Gerald Flurry has confirmed that in his latest message to the dwindling faithful of the Philadelphia Church of God.
Notice the very first two paragraphs of his article The Goal of Our Work:
A God from the northern heavens came to Earth and became flesh and blood, risking the loss of eternal life. Failure would have left the Father as the only remaining God forever.
Spend more time and ponder what failure would have meant to our Father—the rest of eternity spent as the only God in the universe! Then you can better comprehend the kind of love He has for His creation.
The craziness continues:
Can we fathom this loving sacrifice by God? This universe-shaking truth challenges our imagination. We are the recipients of this unparalleled act of love.
An “eternal life,” which was God, the Word, came and died for us. This ought to excite mankind beyond anything we can imagine. It was the beginning of what will probably become billions of sons in God’s Family.
Because we teach this God-ordained message, we are almost glutted with new revelation! This should show us what this message means to the Father and the Son. Revelation comes because we honor our Father and Husband.
At no point in the entire article does Flurry go into how Jesus lived a perfect life, though tempted in all things, There is no discussion about the crucifixion nor the resurrection and what was accomplished by these two things.
Instead, it is an article about church unity and their goal to bring all into fellowship with their Father god and their Son god.
The deepest kind of UNITY comes from God. This is the unity God and the Logos have had for eternity. And it is the only future life there is. Everything else is about eternal death!
The 12 disciples saw, touched and handled this Word—God in the flesh. John says they were overwhelmed with joy. They understood how God and the Word became the Father and Son—and what that means to every human being.
The goal of our work is to bring all humanity into fellowship with the Father and Son! Please read that again.
That is a pretty tall task considering how the PCG has shoved Jesus to the back burner much of the time while they worship their one true God, Herbert Armstrong, a man more powerful than Jesus.
It has been their mission for decades to get the word of Herbert Armstrong out to the world. Getting the message of Jesus out has never been anything they have attempted. Notice what is more important to them...forcing people to get behind their "work". Not following Jesus or understanding the redemption, grace, justification, and sanctification he brought, but getting behind their work.
The job of our ministers is to help get our people 100 percent behind God’s work—so we can complete this work as speedily as possible. We are in THE LAST HOUR! We must work while we can, BEFORE this world is plunged into the Great Tribulation.
Later on, Flurry discusses who was sent to redeem the world...not Jesus, but Herbert Armstrong and he himself, the end time Elijah:
God sent an Elijah to restore all things. It was an astounding message not heard around the world for almost two millennia!
Notice what that message entails...not Jesus of course, but Armstrongism:
And from the early college days to the end, Mr. Armstrong had outstanding, God-inspired spokesman clubs. There were research and writing classes. The students were not there just to learn the message. They were also taught how to deliver it, both in this age and in the Millennium.
In Herbert W. Armstrong College, our students are taught how to write and speak like kings and priests. We have a message that must be communicated to all humanity!
Not a Jesus message though...
Receiving God’s message is just half of the responsibility. The second part is communicating it. And what a communication job! This message must be delivered to every person ever born!
What good is the message if it is not declared and taught? What a failure if we don’t deliver our Father’s message! What a calamity. Now is the time to be a witness for God.
That is the purpose of this Work. We declare God’s message on television, in magazines, books and booklets and via the Internet—any means by which we can deliver it in a quality way.
Poor Bob Thiel, left whimpering by the side of the road, again. But, even he, the Great Bwana to Africa ignores the message of Jesus and what he accomplished for humanity. Instead, the focus is firstly upon his greatness, then on crappy booklets, heretical doctrines, and other claptrap posted on the internet.
Flurry then ends with this:
The Philadelphia Church of God has bought and paid for 170 acres and all of our buildings. What is it all for? We are getting ready to help Christ rule this world and the universe!
God has blessed us mightily. Now He wants to fire our imaginations to see what a marvelous, mind-staggering future this world has. We have the greatest, most complete message God has ever given to declare!
Like John, we must never lose this awesome vision of love! Then we must be a witness for God. This is what the world so desperately needs.
Jesus, where are you?
Suffer The Children
David C. Pack of The Restored Church of God must love the phrase, “Kill them with kindness.” He just needs to figure out what that second part means.
During “The Greatest Unending Story! (Part 443)” on May 18, 2023, the Pastor General goes out of his way to prove the Tier System of his self-control has further eroded. He goes complete hellfire and brimstone on “the young people” in The Restored Church of God who do not sit up straight enough in his presence.
Grandpa Dave dumps an ice-cold bucket of harsh reality upon the youth of RCG. God will not protect them in the days ahead solely because they attend Services. Sanctification through a believing parent does not apply when the First Kingdom to Israel arrives Saturday night. Or maybe it is Sunday morning. Hard to know.
If the young people have their eyes on the door or only come because their parents make them, the Tribulation will turn them into sausage. This applies especially to those teens who want to see Taylor Swift in concert. If you think those are jokes, keep reading.
Fearmongering is no longer just for the adults in The Restored Church of God. Now the kids can lose just as much sleep as their parents. Talk about renewed family unity.
Grandpa Dave takes “tough love” seriously. He just needs to figure out what that second part means.
Part 443 is Ken Orel’s new favorite message because Grandpa Dave really sticks it to the shrinking youth population. He must have been tapping his feet, thinking about all the teenagers soon to be kicked out of their homes for leaving RCG.
Messages like this prove to the remaining teens the wisdom of their friends who bolted out the door once the turkey thermometer popped 18.
The opening comments set the somber mood in the Main Hall at Headquarters on Thursday.
Part 443 – May 18, 2023
@ 00:09 Let me open with a kind of a stark statement. What’s coming in the First Kingdom is vastly worse than anything we dreamed. And I am thankful of my responsibility, my charge, which is to make plain what I have not yet made plain…This’ll be the most sobering, most horrific message you’ve ever heard. Yet, the most fascinating in its own way. And I wanna talk a little bit to start about the generation that God is gonna deal with.
Grandpa Dave paints a black-and-white picture for the members of The Restored Church of God with Part 443. But early on, he relates to the teens by making a pop culture reference.
@ 00:57 First, how many of you’ve heard of Taylor Swift? Okay. She’s this filthy, lewd entertainer who travels the world with barely anything on, and she’s starting a world tour right now where she expects to net something over a billion dollars for herself.
Brethren previously learned what a "filthy thing" Kim Kardashian was for selling underwear. Now they realize that Taylor Swift is also "filthy" because she keeps the money for herself that could be spent on trees for the Campus.
He is disgusted with how much Taylor Swift tickets cost and all the money she will make. You cannot help but hear a tone of jealousy in Grandpa Dave's voice. He must be tormented about all that Common money not finding its way into his pocket so he can pay off the buildings or “whatever we’d do.”
He goes on for so long you start to wonder if he will declare her to be the Whore of Babylon.
Grandpa Dave patches his flawed ideas of the First Kingdom to Israel with generous layers of biblical spackle and prophetic Bondo. It took 77 minutes in Part 443 to fix 61 minutes of Part 442 from five days ago.
The First Kingdom to Israel is one month long, not ten days.
It begins on Sivan 1, not Pentecost.
Sivan 1 is May 20/21.
The Second Kingdom of God begins on Tammuz 1, not Trumpets.
Tammuz 1 is June 19/20.
Perhaps the yawning teens in the room finally set Grandpa Dave off. Maybe a teenager at Headquarters just left. Someone ignited a reaction from “This Old Shepherd” because he goes for the jugular.
@ 1:24:22 Turn over to Jeremiah 5. 'Cause I'm gonna have to talk to our young people. Our young people in the church are in a different category than their baptized parents, and they need to know it. And I'm gonna tell them right now exactly what the Scriptures say. You are not under God's protection because you come to this church. And if you were born to Noah, Daniel, and Job, and they were in it, you wouldn't be under His protection. So if you are a young person out there today, listen now…I've watched them sit in this room. There may be some now. There are two types of young people…those that have left the church and those that will. We've reached a point where that's it.
The young people watch the continual date-setting. They hear the ranting and raving that prove false just a few days later. In many ways, the youth of RCG believe their Bibles more than their parents do. They are proving to be the bravest and wisest among the brethren of The Restored Church of God because they refuse to stay under the rule of a PROVEN false prophet.
David C. Pack is not a man of his word, and the young people know it.
And he wonders why they choose to leave?
@ 1:25:20 I watch their eyes and dance. They think the old man doesn't read 'em. I read 'em like a book. I read 'em easier than "See Spot Run, Sally." Just watch 'em leave. Watch the way some of 'em sit in their chairs. They're here because their parents tell them to be here. So let's talk about the youth of The Restored Church of God. They will get no slack because they haven't left. Unless they fear God and start right now. So let's talk about what God says He has in store for young people today who will be ripped up and eaten alive if they don't pay attention.
Listen to Grandpa Dave or be ripped up and eaten alive, kids. Listen to a man chasing his tail for over ten years, setting over sixty failed dates for the return of Jesus Christ, and threatening parents with the Lake of Fire if they do not sign bigger checks.
And he wonders why they choose to leave.
@ 1:26:15 Jeremiah 5:7. God says, "When I fed them to the full, they then committed adultery and assembled themselves at harlot's houses like troops," like soldiers in Thailand or Vietnam. Verse eight, "They were as fed horses in the morning. Every one neighed after his neighbor's wife."
How exactly does this apply to the young people in The Restored Church of God? Which teenagers are committing adultery or neighing after wives?
Wait. Headquarters has some hot moms, so maybe Grandpa Dave knows more than he is letting on. You know, for the sake of discretion that he is well-known for.
@ 1:26:41 And the younger you are in this generation, the likely the more rotten you are inside. Unless you change. There are exceptions, of course.
To be fair to Grandpa Dave, this did not sound like he was saying 8-year-olds are more rotten than 12-year-olds. I think he meant that a 4-year-old is more rotten than a 24-year-old. Actually, that does not sound any better.
The young people in the room must have been thankful when Grandpa Dave moved on to other topics. Little did they know he was not done with them yet.
@ 1:31:35 Presumably, we would believe that Noah, Daniel, and Job’s kids attended Services. But, if they were filthy kids, they die.
Watching Dave imitate the teens is not humorous, like his impression of Kim Kardashian. There is a deep-seated resentment coming to the surface as he mocks them. He must have been stewing on this for a long time. The swelling bitter waters broke forth from below the surface, and he was determined to drown them in brotherly love.
@ 1:32:49 “Well, I don’t think I hafta obey God.” Really? “I don’t believe a lion’s gonna come and eat me.” “Well, you’ll believe if yer in his mouth.” That’s what I’ll say. I don’t like to talk to our young people this–I don’t wanna give this sermon. No one would wanna give this sermon. The next group that hears it is eight billion. But there it is.
What does he mean he does not like it? But, Grandpa Dave, you are so good at it. You are in true form when you dole out corrections stemming from a place of meanness. His tirade is not shrouded in outgoing love and concern. The young people are leaving RCG, and it ticks him off.
They roll their eyes and slump in their chairs because they are not as good as their parents at hiding the "Oh, please…" expression each time he sets a new date and reverses what he taught the day before. “Oh, ANOTHER final message?” Kids are good at sniffing out lies. And they lose respect much faster than adults in the face of proven fraud.
The assessment of the young people in The Restored Church of God about their Pastor General is no more severe than their parents. The parents just fake it better.
And he wonders why they choose to leave.
@ 1:33:20 I don’t stop and talk to the young people very much. I love ‘em. I go to Camp when I can and see them. There’re many of them that are fine people.
How can you love someone you do not talk to? Maybe that happens on OnlyFans, but not in the real world. Grandpa Dave has little patience for young people who do not give him the proper respect and attention he deserves. He generally avoids the kids at Headquarters, and they generally avoid him. It was a mutually beneficial arrangement that worked up until now.
He does spend time with his favorites, though. Especially his unrelated yet annexed "grandchildren." There is an elite group of teens he will engage with from time to time. If they are a minister’s kid, he will sometimes throw them a bone by acknowledging they exist as he walks by.
When AYC Campers come to Headquarters, Grandpa Dave puts on his Best Behavior Underwear to appear personable and engaging. Outside of that, it is mainly kissing babies and hugs from toddlers.
@ 1:34:02 So, what do you do with young people like that? A lotta ‘em are gonna get ripped up. “Oh, Mr. Pack, you’re being too harsh.” Well, I’m just quoting God. I’m only quoting a fraction of the verses on this subject.
This is the God that Pastor General David C. Pack presents to the youth of The Restored Church of God. The teens in the church can look forward to the same punishment that fornicating, drug-using, parent-hating children “in the world” get. So, what is the point of dressing up for Sabbath Services and sitting through two hours of prophetic fraud every week?
Whether you sit in the chair or not, if you know Grandpa Dave is full of malarkey, being lion food is your fate within the next four days.
And he wonders why they choose to leave.
By this point in the message, Ken Orel must have pissed himself with excitement. He is no longer the “most harsh minister” when it comes to letting the RCG young people know “how it really is.”
Even though some wife-neighing teenagers in RCG will be eaten by lions next week, Grandpa Dave points out that there is a happy ending.
@ 1:39:52 …you’ll love the finished product. When God has to deal with our young people, if they’re too stupid and can’t seek God and avoid this, then God says, “You know, I got this. I got this. I’ma work it out. You'll like the way it ends with your kids. But you won't like the process. Kinda like everybody likes to taste sausage, but you don’t like to see how it’s made. And God’s gonna He’s gonna it’s gonna be something.
Children of The Restored Church of God:
Our Sausage of the Future™
Undoubtedly, the parents in the audience appreciated the idea of their children being likened to meat pressed through a grinder.
@ 1:55:50 There is no [Part] 444. I made it plain. I believe absolutely, with every fiber of my being…the Lord Jesus Christ will surely come, and all of this will start. But I will wait for the rest of my life. I hope all of us will. And you young people, get on your knees. You don’t get a pass because of whose womb you came out of. Or whom your father is. Someone who loves you, God chastens every son that He loves. I’m telling you, young people, listen. And if you’re gonna move, you better move fast. You better move fast. Godspeed Saturday night. Goodnight.
This message was on Thursday. The young people in The Restored Church of God have until sunrise in Jerusalem at 10:38 PM ET tonight to turn things around.
Grandpa Dave cared so much about these unbaptized members of The Restored Church of God that he forgot to tell them HOW to do it. How does one without the Holy Spirit repent before God?
He did not offer the concept of fasting to show their commitment to change. Perhaps he was leaving that for the parents to instruct. How many RCG families prayed and fasted together on this topic? How many parents were peppered with frantic questions after Mr. Pack marched back upstairs?
How many young people and adults alike knew to ignore Grandpa Dave because he would probably change his tune on Saturday?
That is not far-fetched. This is the same false apostle who said this and completely reversed it the next time he spoke.
Flashback Part 438 – April 27, 2023
@ 1:07:23 If your relatives are dead, thank God every day that your relatives are dead…everybody who’s shot and killed in this world right now…drop to your knees and thank God they were killed.
The young people in RCG pay attention more than he thinks. They remember exactly what was said and recognize when it is walked back.
Grandpa Dave never clarified one vital detail: What does "young people” mean? Was he talking to 19-year-olds or 9-year-olds? Or both? How young is too young to be eaten by lions next week?
If the sanctification of the believing, baptized parent is nullified in the coming days, does that mean toddlers are held to the same standards as teenagers? He never explained this.
David C. Pack and Kenneth M. Orel still wonder why young people leave RCG. They want to blame this rotten generation and worsening world conditions.
Both men are too blind to see it is due to the worsening conditions inside The Restored Church of God.
Marc Cebrian
See: Suffer the Children
