Philadelphia Church of God And Its Fraudulent Gospel Message Roadshow

 

We have all watched over the last several years as the Philadelphia Church of God has taken its Celtic dance propaganda on the road to try and bamboozle the unsuspecting public that they are receiving a gospel message. They have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars building dance studios on the cult compound to cater to  Flurry's grandkids and others to learn Irish dance. These wanna-be Michael Flatley's believe they are dancing the sacred dance of David and of the Israelitish peoples.

This shere lunacy got spurred on by the absolutely asinine idea that the dirty rock they dug up in Oregon, which Herbert supposedly prayed at, was to be the new coronation stone that the creature they call "christ" would come back and sit upon after wiping out 1/3 of humanity. 

PCG has spent millions in tithe money to fund this traveling shitshow of absurdity. They have just completed a seven-week roadshow with this production. Apparently, some members have dared to complain about the cost this has incurred on the church, its members, and the families of the dancers. 

So, to dispel these nasty rebellious rumors spurred on by Satan himself, the PCG instructed Lil'Joel to spread the good news about this awesome gospel message. After spending more time in the closet coming up with the proper things to say, he wrote an article for the Philadelphia Strumpet.

COGNews had this up the other day:

Irish Dancing? Why are we doing this? 

 

In the November-December 2023 issue of their magazine Royal Vision, Joel Hilliker writes:

“My wife and I were able to join the seven-week CelticThrone tour this summer.

This show is the result of years of work God has been doing, working with families and providing opportunities.

Yet for most of those years, we had no idea where it was leading.

Our pastor general didn’t have a master plan to one day stage a traveling show to perform for audiences nationwide. Surely God had that goal in mind, but He had to gauge our interest and commitment. Mr Flurry supported and encouraged the program, but it was every family’s decision whether to make the sacrifices needed to attend classes and competitions.

Did you notice that the members were being tested to see how they reacted to this shitshow? If it had failed then the members would be at fault. They failed the test. 

After all, EVERYTHING that goes wrong in the Church of God movement is the member's fault, never the idiot leaders' fault, just the members.

I’ll be honest: I was not very excited about it. It required significant travel and great expense, absorbed a lot of time and energy, and provoked much disappointment and many tears – such as when competition results failed expectations and dashed hopes.

At times I thought, Why are we doing this? Is this really best for my family?

The answer, for me, basically came down to one thing: 

 

This is what Mr Flurry wants. God’s man is encouraging it; he’s opening doors and providing opportunities – so we are going to do it.” 

 

Is Joel Hilliker subtly questioning the diversion of increasingly great resources toward an entertainment that has little if anything to do with spreading the gospel?

It is no longer shocking to see the lengths that various Church of God groups will go to NOT discuss Jesus or anything about the New Covenant that they are "supposedly" followers of. Instead, these COG's continually look back to the good old days of the Old Coveant when all the rules and regulations were laid out for them to follow. That wonderful period of time when their god was eagerly looking for ways to destroy humanity. They look back with wanton desire at Hebrew prophets and personalities who were strong men of faith wishing and believing that they could only be like them. The hero worship of these guys by the PCG is appalling. Imagine if they put that much energy into actually being a follower of Jesus!

Jesus has to be up there in that heavenly kitchen thinking, "What the Gehenna fire is wrong with these people? After all this mess with Bob Thiel, we now have to deal with this. Ghastly days, all they had to do was simply follow me and be at rest and at peace."

When and Why Faith Fails: The Silence of the Gods:

 

Psalms 91:7 

4He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler. 5Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; 6Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. 7A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee. 8Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked. 9Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; 10There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.

YHVH-JESUS-ALLAH

Pick up....

Psalm 34:

4I sought the Lord, and he answered me;

he delivered me from all my fears.

5Those who look to him are radiant;

their faces are never covered with shame.

6This poor man called, and the Lord heard him;

he saved him out of all his troubles.

7The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him,

and he delivers them.

============================

Psalm 22:1

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

    Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?

2 

O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer,

    and by night, but I find no rest.

Rome Destroys The Temple

70 CE

Train to Oblivion Germany 

I Kings 18:

Then they called on the name of Baal from morning till noon. “Baal, answer us!” they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made.

27 At noon Elijah began to taunt them. “Shout louder!” he said. “Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.” 

28 So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed. 29 Midday passed, and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice...

 But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention.

Rediscovering Our Intellectual Curiosity and Critical Thinking Skills

 

Rediscovering Our Intellectual Curiosity and Critical Thinking Skills

Lonnie Hendrix

One of the great ironies of having once been a part of Armstrongism is the loss and/or distortion of two of the things that allowed us to entertain Herbert Armstrong’s teachings in the first place. I am, of course, speaking of our intellectual curiosity and critical thinking skills.

In an article for Psychology Today, Dr Michael Austin defined intellectual curiosity as “a deep and persistent desire to know.” He went on to say that an intellectually curious person pursues the “why” questions. Remember how those old Worldwide Church of God booklets with questions as titles first grabbed your attention and instilled a desire to want to know the answers to the questions they posed?

Likewise, it was the employment of some of our critical thinking skills which first allowed us to entertain the answers that Mr. Armstrong was selling. In Coursera’s article What Are Critical Thinking Skills and Why Are They Important?, C.T. is defined as “the ability to interpret, evaluate, and analyze facts and information that are available, to form a judgment or decide if something is right or wrong.” In his writings, Herbert Armstrong invited us to employ some of our critical thinking skills. He asked us to identify the biases and prejudices of traditional Christianity. He invited us to research the topic from the pages of our own Bibles. He encouraged us to be open to God’s “truth.” Mr. Armstrong also encouraged us to meditate on what he (or the Bible) was teaching us about some subject (analysis and problem-solving).

The problem was that Mr. Armstrong offered us a destination – a place to park our intellectual curiosity and critical thinking skills. After all, once we had discovered “THE TRUTH,” there was no longer any reason to be curious or use those critical thinking skills! Indeed, according to Herbert Armstrong, if we continued to explore and employ those skills, we might lose the truth which we had discovered. In fact, after we were hooked, Mr. Armstrong encouraged us to become binary thinkers!

According to LifeHack’s Clay Drinker, binary thinking “is thinking there are two sides, and you can only pick one. Also known as dichotomous thinking, this way of thinking becomes simple for us to process complex ideas and situations. The gray area in the middle of these complex issues is often ignored or goes unnoticed.” This is also sometimes referred to as black and white thinking. With Mr. Armstrong, everything was either or. He was the master of the false dilemma. Things were either Holy or Pagan, clean or unclean, good or evil, true or false! When we think about it, the problems inherent with this kind of thinking become readily apparent. Once again, Drinker informs us that “The problem with binary thinking is its inaccuracy. Gray areas do exist and are prominent in every issue. It may make us feel better to think about this or that, them or us, him or her, but it’s not how the world works.”

So, how do we recover what was lost? How do we recover our intellectual curiosity and critical thinking skills? My guess is that, like most of us who contribute to this blog, Mr. Armstrong never completely succeeded in suppressing your curiosity or eradicating your critical thinking skills. In other words, they’re probably still there – bruised and buried in your subconscious. Hence, you only need to reawaken them – start exercising those dormant muscles – and allow yourself to begin once again exploring Scripture and the world around you! You have to give yourself permission to listen to other people and their ideas. You have to allow yourself to explore writings outside of the books and booklets promulgated by Armstrong and his disciples.

Also, you have to work on the biases/prejudices which Herbert Armstrong instilled within you concerning science, history, and education. In other words, it’s not just about beginning to research topics again – you must also learn that some sources of information are superior to others. In short, you must learn again to recognize that other folks also have their biases and prejudices which they bring to the table for discussion. And, most importantly of all, you need to acknowledge that you may be wrong about some things – that you may not have all of the answers to all of the questions!

Likewise, on the spiritual side of your journey, you will need to acknowledge that we currently see through a glass darkly – that God’s Holy Spirit doesn’t make you (or anyone else) infallible in matters of faith. Allow yourself to entertain the ideas of the folks who have devoted their lives to the study of Scripture. Biblical criticism is NOT a bad thing! It can be an extremely helpful tool in better understanding the Bible. Allow yourself to explore the textual, philological, and literary criticisms of the scholars. You don’t have to swallow everything they write hook, line, and sinker (indeed, you shouldn’t), but you should recognize that it is possible that they have something to contribute to your understanding of Scripture. And, finally, we must all remember that we should continue to grow in grace and knowledge for as long as we are breathing and cognitively able to do so! Best wishes and blessings on your journey!