The craziness from Gerald Flurry (still missing in action) is shining forth on the recent PCG mailing list with a repost of a 2016 article written by him:
Called to Set the Earth Back on Course
In the first four verses of Psalm 82, God condemns this world for its injustices. “How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah. Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy. Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked” (verses 2-4). God expects us to look after those who can’t take care of themselves: the poor, the fatherless, the needy.
This world is filled with the opposite! “[A]ll the foundations of the earth are out of course”! (verse 5). The entire Earth is experiencing something like a massive earthquake. Its foundations have been shaken out of joint! That means it is doomed to collapse!
How will God solve this problem? “I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children [or sons] of the most High” (verse 6).
How many people understand this? You are gods! The truth of the Bible is that human beings have the potential to be sons of God—to be born into the Family of God! Many other scriptures show that we will look like God the Father and Jesus Christ; we will have the same character they have. Certainly we will be of much lower rank, but nevertheless, a part of the Family of God. God is re-creating Himself in man! That is the purpose of man.
This is what Christ was trying to get across to the Jews of His day. He tried to show them their potential, what their future was, what He created man to be! Yet this message infuriated them—even though it was in their own Bible. He told them the truth, and they did not want to hear it!
This has been the story throughout man’s history: Christ has always tried to show this truth to mankind—but most people reject it. It is incredibly hard for Christ to get people deeply interested in their incredible human potential.
All the foundations of the Earth are out of course! Practically everything is being done the wrong way. Man has reached the point where he can destroy all human life! We ought to be to the point where we see that man cannot solve these problems. Only God can solve them!
God will solve these problems, and He is inviting you to help Him. God the Father and Jesus Christ want to teach you how to live—how to take care of those who are weak and to help solve the world’s problems. They are absolutely going to straighten out this off-kilter world, and they are inviting you to be part of that solution. They want you to take part in solving problems as sons who think and act like God. What a marvelous potential!
You Are Gods
Christ quoted Psalm 82:6, which says, “I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are [sons] of the most High.” That is what you are—all of you are sons of God! You have the potential to be begotten and born into the Family of God. God calls us sons. He never called an angel a begotten son (Hebrews 1:5-8).
When Jesus Christ spoke with the Jews, He Himself said, “You are Gods.”That same Greek word is used over 1,300 times in the New Testament to refer to God Himself. Some scholars argue that the word gods in Psalm 82 could read judges, but Christ wasn’t talking about judges—He was talking about these Jews’ potential to enter the very Family of God. He was refuting their anger over His statement that He, a man, was God. (For more information, request my free booklet John’s Gospel—The Love of God.)
We need to think about this because it is about us helping to rule the Earth and the universe!
Christ continued: “If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?” (John 10:35-36). They were accusing Christ of committing blasphemy by saying He was God. But He was God in the flesh.He came to make it possible for us to enter the God Family.
It would be hard to find a scripture in the Bible more inspiring, uplifting and wonderful than this! It is mind-staggering—you are Gods!
God truly has given us an incredible potential. It is so wonderful, it’s almost more than the mind can comprehend!
Psalm 82 begins, “God standeth in the congregation of the mighty ….” The word God is translated from the Hebrew Elohim. Here is what Mr. Armstrong wrote about this word in Mystery of the Ages: “The Hebrew word translated ‘God’ is Elohim—a noun or a name, plural in form, but normally singular in grammatical usage. It is the same sort of a word as family, church, group—one family consisting of two or more members—one church composed of many members—one group of several persons.
“It is referring to precisely the same Persons, making up or composing the one God, as we found in John 1:1—the Word and God—and each of these two Persons is God. In other words, God is now a family of Persons composed so far of only two—God the Father and Christ the Son.”
Elohim gives you an indication of God’s ultimate plan for family! There are two Persons in that Family now, but God will expand it to include every person who has ever lived who wants it. God created family. He designed marriage to produce children—for parents to be able to, in a sense, re-create themselves by having children—in order to illustrate the reality that He is reproducing Himself! You are Gods—sons of the Most High! Your Incredible Potential—and Your Children’s
Flurry also included this statement further down in his article:
God is creating a family. Malachi 4:5-6 prophesy that God would send an end-time type of Elijah to turn the hearts of fathers to their children, and the hearts of children to their fathers—just before the great and dreadful Day of the Lord. That beautiful family-building work would occur during a time when all of the foundations of the Earth are out of course! Amid this turmoil, God has little children who are turning to their fathers.
Mr. Armstrong fulfilled that role. He taught us wonderfully deep truths about the family and what it all means. He showed us how God works with His Family, protects His Family, and loves His Family—and how He will do anything to help us.
No family in the COG movement was more fractured than Herbert Armstrong's very own family. Both of his daughters stopped attending church. Garner Ted was a philandering power-hungry man who destroyed everyone and everything he was associated with. Herbert Armstrong's legacy was one of abusive outbursts of anger, heretical doctrines, and broken marriages and families. Yep, those are qualifications for being a future god.