PCG Expecting Summer Camp Attendees To Rat Out Life Back Home

 

Anyone who has ever been to SEP under the auspices of the Worldwide Church of God, regardless of where it was held, usually found it to be a fun time, Sure, for some, it was tough being away from home for the first time, but the experience tended to be fun.

Ever since the implosion of the church summer camp has continued on in various splinter groups. Most have them today except for the little personality cults like the improperly named "continuing" Church of "god" and Ron Wienland's geriatric group.

Anyway, the boys in Edmond posted a story on their site about the upcoming summer camps. These are the three things that campers are expected to do:

1. Prepare now for your prayer life at camp.

At S.E.P., you will hear a lot about sharpening your prayer life. More than likely, you will hear about prayer notebooks, and be given lists outlining basic subjects to pray about in your life and in the Work of God. Prepare now to refine the quality and length of your prayers before, during and after camp! Pray now that the pyc experience takes your prayer life to even greater heights! 

 

Do you struggle with stirring up the motivation to pray? We can all struggle with that at times. I am reminded of a statement I heard from Evangelist Alex Harrison in a sermon several years ago. “Don’t feel like praying?” he said. “Tell that to God! Ask Him for the desire to pray.” Pray that God would give you that desire to pray to him now as well as during S.E.P.! Let God know if you are struggling in this area. He is not intending to beat you down. Show Him you want His assistance, and He will help you! 

 

Set specific goals now for your prayer life at S.E.P.—goals for length in prayer, goals for focused quality of prayer. There are so many different facets of S.E.P. that you can be praying about now so camp this year can go that much more smoothly.

Prayer was always encouraged at SEP and the Orr camp had prayer closets in each dorm. Campers on Friday nights usually had a Bible study in the dorm going over some weird WCG booklet, but, this was not the main focus of the camper's time at camp. It was building friendships and discovering new things you might never get to do when at home. Imagine being a 12-year-old and having to focus on the length of prayer and the supposed "quality". The past church teaching of one-hour prayers was a load of crap. No member ever did that successfully, especially the ministry. One of the best prayers ascending to God's ears is a single word like "Help!"

2. Prepare to spend time with the ministry. 

God’s ministers are a key part of His Family; they help edify and unite that Family (Ephesians 4:11-16). Don’t let a day go by without making some contact with a minister. This will be a unique opportunity for you at S.E.P.: to be surrounded by so many ministers. Most Church members never get to have that. So take advantage of it! 

 

What should you talk about? Tell them about your life back at home, your congregation, what you are looking forward to the most at S.E.P., and what your goals are in life. They would love to talk to you—if you overcome any barriers and give them the time.

This is even more odious for campers to deal with. Too many stories are floating around out there about PCG  ministers being abusive pieces of crap toward the youth of the church.  The ones about PCG ministers in Edmond forcing campers to run in 100% humidity to some passed out and then forcing them to get up and run some more. No child heading off to summer camp expects to sit in front of some dickwad and have to squeal about life back home. This is what the Chinese Communists do to their children. Turn your parents in for not following the program. 

Also, what 12, 14, and 16-year-old really has their life planned out as to what their goals are in life. Just surviving 2-3 weeks with COG Gestopa agents on their ass is their #1 goal.

3. Prepare to forge strong friendships. 

Camp can be nerve-wracking for some—coming from far distances to a strange land, meeting unfamiliar people. But we are all tied together by a common mind and goal! Camp director Wayne Turgeon said the pycmindset is about leaving “problems, fears, worries, concerns behind and really embracing God’s way of selflessness, outgoing, flowing, giving, concern and sacrifice for three weeks.” So forget yourself, and be outgoing to your fellow brothers and sisters at S.E.P. A lot of campers may not have many, if any, friends their age in their congregation. Plan to build friendships that will last longer than camp itself, and then keep in contact with those who do not have close friends their age in their area. Plan to use this S.E.P. to sharpen the iron of your friendships (Proverbs 27:17). 

 

Come to S.E.P. to have fun. Come to try your best at every single activity. Come to pull yourself out of your comfort zone and try new things. But come chiefly with a mindset of building the Family of God. Come with a mindset to get to know the ministry, and to get to know your fellow brothers and sisters that much better. 

Seriously, dude? Seriously? Come with a mindset of building the family of God? When their own ministers and local church members are some of the nastiest people on earth why would anyone want to come to camp to expand that kind of family? God certainly is NOT part of the program.

Many who have attended previous camps say that S.E.P changed their lives. It can change yours too! Many Armstrong College students will tell you that the main thing that motivated them to apply for college was S.E.P. That’s true for me as well. Seeing God’s way of life put to practice here for those few fantastic weeks as a camper was more than enough to persuade me to apply for God’s college. Seeing the Family of God being built at camp is an awe-inspiring sight. But that building begins now—before camp even begins. So prepare now to do your part in building the Family of God at camp, and I guarantee you, you will have the best S.E.P. ever!

May God have mercy on these poor children's souls! 

Philadelphia Church of God Embraces Michael Flynn

 

One thing the more aberrant Churches of God revel in is finding validation for their aberrant teachings in sometimes far-right publications and personalities. The more salacious the news the more it fits into their end-of-the-world scenarios. Eager to see a world around them severely punished for their sins, because they and they alone have been the most pure practitioners of Christianity since the first century, these self-righteous peddlers of conspiracy theories and outright lies of false prophecy channel their superiority by any means possible even if it means coddling up to less than credible personalities.

The Philadelphia Church of God has an Executive Speaker Series in their Armstrong Auditorium located on the fringes of Edmond, Oklahoma. Currently, the only "executive speaker" listed is Michael Flynn. Flynn started a traveling road show last year that fed into the disillusionment of many conservative Americas shocked at the collapse of society around them through corrupt politicians, wokeism, and rampant crime. 

Regardless of where you are on either side of that fence, people know there are serious issues going on in this country and that is what excites Armstrongists like Gerald Flurry. They see these issues as a sure sign of the collapse of the nation similar to the fall of Rome. As long as these things fit into their narratives they will use worldly men and women and so-called Christians while denigrating them behind their backs,

At this moment in time, the Philadelphia Church of God has found its useful champion, Michael Flynn.

Michael Flynn, United States Army lieutenant general (ret.) and former national security adviser, will visit Oklahoma on Monday, August 21. He will deliver a public lecture at 6 p.m. at Armstrong Auditorium, on the Herbert W. Armstrong College campus in northern Edmond, a suburb of Oklahoma City.

Flynn’s lecture is sponsored by the Philadelphia Trumpet newsmagazine and its “America in Crisis” campaign, which features lectures focused on solutions to the crises facing the nation at home and abroad.

“General Flynn’s perspective is extremely relevant to Americans concerned about the direction of our nation,” said Stephen Flurry, Trumpet executive editor and host of the Trumpet Daily podcast. “We hope to raise awareness of the solutions to these many problems through educational lectures such as these.”

With more than 33 years of service in the United States military, General Flynn’s career culminated in his becoming director of the Defense Intelligence Agency and the nation’s highest-serving military intelligence officer. After retiring from the Army in 2014 and as a private citizen, General Flynn went on to serve in a variety of business, educational and non-profit roles. As an expert in national and international security, General Flynn is a prominent commentator and sought-after speaker on military and global affairs.

Flynn's Christian outlook is entirely based in evangelicalism, which to Armstrongites is anathema to their core beliefs. How quickly they overlook that as long as certain points fit their narrative.

It will be interesting to see what Flynn says in his talk Monday night, August 21, 2023, and whether or not the local press in Edmond is there to report on it.

He stirred up a huge stink this past week when he said the "Jews were willingly given to the Nazis and there were no guards" there to stop them from leaving.

The Jerusalem Post had this to say:

Former Trump adviser blames Jews for dying in Auschwitz

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF Published: AUGUST 16, 2023 18:10

Michael Flynn, a Christian nationalist who previously served as US national security advisor under Donald Trump, said that Jews were willingly given to the Nazis and said there were no guards.

Former Donald Trump adviser Michael Flynn blamed the Jews for the deaths of all the children who died in the Auschwitz concentration camp during the Holocaust.

Speaking at an event in Michigan at the beginning of August, clips of which have gone viral over social media, Flynn, recounting a trip of his to Auschwitz, said that mothers "willingly" gave their children over to the Nazis' trains to be shipped off to Auschwitz.

Flynn said that mothers would have essentially let their children be packed into the trains "like a sardine."

Later in the article:

However, his words about the Holocaust sparked backlash from the Auschwitz Memorial Museum in Poland, which described the flaws behind Flynn's accounts. 

The assertion that Jews could have easily resisted during deportations to extermination simply due to their numerical strength compared to the guards oversimplifies the dire circumstances they faced during the Holocaust. Acts of resistance did occur in various forms across… https://t.co/2pmUPU9Atp

— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) August 13, 2023

We can be guaranteed that Gerald Flurry will report on Flynn's speech in glowing terms and as proof, the world is in serious trouble. It will also be interesting to see if there is a backlash at words spoken during this speech and if PCG will suffer any consequences. If there is, the PCG will claim it is the persecution that is spoken of in their Bible.

Becoming God Dilemma In Armstrongism...When Does It Happen?

At a first glance, Armstrong seems to have an orthodox concept of God. However, he declares the doctrine of the trinity to be pagan and teaches instead that “God is a family, a kingdom, NOT a limited trinity”. This family consists currently only of God the Father and the God of Abraham, who later became Jesus Christ, the son of God. But God’s intent, Armstrong teaches, is to reproduce himself. All children of God will eventually become God as well, who “will counsel and advise our Creator”. This is very close to what the eternal progression in Mormonism expresses but it goes to an even greater extreme. Herbert Armstrong's Worldwide Church of God

One of the semi-unique myths of Armstrongism is that it teaches that humans will become God as God is (Mormons teach the same thing). It was hounded into us by Herbert Armstrong, Rod Meredith, and that king of buffoonery and deception, Gerald Waterhouse.

What a glorious time it will be when the Kingdom of God gets here! Only true Church of God members will instantly become God by some magic event that never really gets thought through by most in the church, let alone its leadership.

The scenario goes like this. Endlessly being persecuted, the true church members will flee to Petra to receive final training for 3 1/2 years so that when they become God so they can rule with rods of iron while dishing out a little mercy here and there along the way.  

When that magical kingdom arrives, the greatest of the church leaders will sit at Jesus' right hand (like Herbert Armstrong, Garner Ted, Bob Thiel, Dave Pack, Rod Meredith, and Gerald Flurry). 

Lesser COG members will be part of the hierarchical God structure ruling over galaxies, worlds, planets, cities, and nations while under the control of men like Abraham, David, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and others. 

Of course, none of these will be women as it is an established fact in Armstrongism that women cannot rule. Even though they will become God just like the manly men, their womanly god parts will not allow them to be in charge unless it is overseeing things like bakeries, restaurants, and home interior decorating ministries, as all real COG women know their place was in the kitchen and keeping their home looking nice for their soon to be God husbands.

That all sounds glorious to church members who have always been the lesser than's of society where they have lived on the fringes. Becoming greater than their enemies, high school rivals, bitter relatives, and nasty neighbors were going to be the ultimate reward!

But the niggling question remains, WHEN will all of those chosen humans in Petra become God? Will they receive power as humans when the 3 1/2 years are up?  

Will they be instantly transformed into God at the snap of God the Father's fingers or Jesus's? 

Will they instantly die and be resurrected as God's in "the twinkling of an eye"? If that is what happens then what is the point in having God the Father around anymore since the likes of Bob Thiel, Gerald Flurry, Ron Weinland, and James Malm would be on equal footing? What is the point of Jesus and the Holy Spirit?

Or, will they be translated into some kind of superhuman because they did not die? Herbert Armstrong said, "No human will be given any government office." They must be a divine being or God as God is.

Armstrongism makes no sense when you really get into it. But, I am sure many will say otherwise...