PCG: How Bright And Happy You Are Today Will Determine Your Star Quality And How Much Your Face Will Shine In The Kingdom

 

More asshatery from the Philadelphia Church of God cult and Lil'Joel Hilliker:

Get a load of this absolute nonsense:

Mr. Flurry says, “We in God’s Church should radiate something entirely different! I believe that, in a general way, we may be able to determine how much star quality and brightness we will have in the future by how much our face shines today in happiness and joy. God wants to make you happy. He has commanded that you be happy! And He has instructed us in exactly how to achieve that: ‘If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.’” You are truly happy when you live God’s law of love—the give way. That is what makes us happy!

This is just more of the continuing nonsense that PCG is reenforcing in members in that they are all Royally here on earth and depending on how well they keep the law and other non essential things will determine how big their royal status will be in the kingdom.

Ron Fraser wrote in a 2011 Philadelphia News article: “To aspire to the highest standard of elegance in personal presentation, general bearing, manners, speech and the appreciation of the finer things in life is a requirement of royalty.” Royalty in this world receives specific training in how to present themselves. They represent the royal crown and must be aware of this standard as they interact with other people. You must think on this as a representative of the new throne of David. We are a part of a royal culture—we are royals!

Some will be greater royals like Lil'Stevie and King Daddy will be. Church members faces will never shine as bright as the faces of these two blithering idiots or those in leadership positions on the cult compound.

1 Corinthians 15:41 reads, “There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.” In John’s Gospel: The Love of God, Gerald Flurry explains, “Some stars are greater and more luminous than others. God really wants us to have a lot of glory! He wants you to have the most ‘star glory’ possible when you are born into the God Family.

Did you know your Royal Report Card is keeping track of you shiny happy face? So, don't be a grumpy, otherwise you will get a failing grade:

“But even today, we should shine with a certain glory. Our faces should shine with happiness!” If “happiness on your face” appeared on your report card, what grade would you be getting? This is important to having a royal personality.

If you are unhappy or a grumpy, then you are a sinner!

Mr. Flurry continues: “Isaiah 3:9 describes how, because of Israel’s sins, ‘The shew of their countenance doth witness against them ….’ Look around, and you see many unhappy people in this world—people in the bonds of sin.” Can you see that? There are a lot of “stars” in this world—actors, models, influencers—who are physically beautiful, but do they radiate joy? They majority of people look unhappy, and this is caused by sin.

How can anyone who is a member of controlling Armstrongite cults truly be happy, especially those in the Philadelphia Church of God, Restored Church of God and even the improperly need "continuing" Church of "god"?

The truly happy people are those that have LEFT Armstrongism!

Nothing New Under This Sun:

Why Do Seventh Day Adventist Leave Their Church

 

 

Exit Interviews: Why Do People Leave the Church?

29 April 2021  

https://atoday.org/atss-5-1-21/

There have been a number of projects dedicated to looking at attrition in Seventh-day Adventism, at who leaves the denomination and why. One of the most recent is this presentation by Dr. David Trim, the church’s Director of Archives, Statistics and Research, presented in 2016. (Dr. Trim has also been interviewed on the topic.)

While some studies have been conducted that did interview former Adventists to ask about their reasons for leaving the church (and Dr. Trim’s work does draw on those studies), many such presentations simply assume the reasons. The most common explanations given by current Adventists for why former Adventists have left are: (1) having been “hurt” in some way by the actions of church members or (2) wishing to “enjoy a life of sin” without the constraints on behavior of religious belief.

I thought there’d be value in simply asking some former members about their reasons for leaving, to try to develop a more nuanced understanding of what is going on for people. I should note that, although I do social science research in my day job, and have even published books on research methodology, this is by no means a formal study, and the results are only indicative. It’s an informal conversation with friends. From an ethics perspective, I won’t use any names, and I have the consent of all participants to share their reasons and stories.

It’s worth thinking about the “destinations” where former believers find themselves… or at least, the current waypoints on their life journey. By no means all end up “enjoying that life of sin”—in fact, very few do.

Quite a few join some other Christian denomination, or consider themselves “spiritual but not religious.”

Others become, if not “agnostic,” perhaps “apatheist”: apathetic toward God and religion. They are not anti-religious, particularly; they just consider that religious belief has no meaning or relevance in their lives. They find meaning in their relationships and secular (non-religious) activities.

And, of course, some also become atheists who consider that religious belief in general is a delusion. Even within the atheist group, some are more strongly anti-theistic while others are closer to the apathetic position.

I think this is important, because it takes us a little beyond the binary of “Adventist = saved, non-Adventist = lost.” If we genuinely accept that believers in other Christian denominations can be saved, then attrition from Adventism is not seen as necessarily attrition from faith or salvation. A more sophisticated and nuanced understanding of where people find themselves “after Adventism” is simply more accurate, and therefore more useful, than a simplistic binary.

I’ve asked a number of people in an online group I’m part of, and here are some of the answers. I try to group them a little, without presenting them in rank order or order of frequency of responses—the body of data is too small for that kind of analysis.

1. Being “defined out” – people who feel that Adventism has been defined (including in changes to the Fundamental Beliefs) in ways that define them as being “outside,” and choose to accept that
2. Studying their way out – people who have been convinced by very extensive and careful study of scripture and theology that various claims of Seventh-day Adventism are not supported by the best available evidence
3. Recent creationism – people who find the very strong insistence on a literal 6-day creation week less than 10,000 years ago impossible to reconcile with their understanding of science. This is sometimes associated with anti-science perspectives on other issues such as the health effects of coffee or masturbation.
4. Hierarchy – people who believe the denomination should be more congregational and local rather than global, so that local cultural differences can be accepted, rather than requiring uniformity
5. Institutional protection of sexual predators – people who have been horrified by the treatment of survivors of sexual abuse (including themselves or people close to them) and their abusers, including cover-ups and “moving along”
6. Women’s ordination – people who believe that some women are called to pastoral ministry and should be in all ways equal with men in that calling
7. Morality of God – people who find the God who killed almost everyone on Earth in a Flood and commanded genocide of women and children after the Exodus morally unacceptable
8. Sexuality – people who are gay, bi or trans and were told their very existence was wrong and excluded by both doctrine and practice
9. Fluidity of belief – people who are not rigid in their belief structures, and who “flowed in” and later “flowed out” of belief
10. Never believed – people who never really believed in supernatural things, in many cases despite being brought up in the church, and left once they were socially free to do so
11. Claimed inerrancy of Scripture and Ellen G White – people who have identified errors in the Bible or the writings of Ellen White, when both are (sometimes) claimed to be inerrant (noting that inerrancy is not mainstream Adventist doctrine in either case)
12. Inconsistencies within Scripture or between doctrine and Scripture – people who have identified inconsistencies within the Bible, within the writings of Ellen White, between EGW and the Bible or between the Bible and Adventist doctrinal positions
13. Desmond Ford, his treatment at Glacier View and the Investigative Judgement – people (usually old enough to have been around at the time) who accept Dr. Ford’s critique of the Investigative Judgement doctrine, and/or who believe that his treatment by the denomination at the time and later was unfair
14. Exclusive truth claims – people who find it impossible, in a very large and very diverse world of almost 7.9 billion people that a small group of 22 million Adventists (about 0.3% of the global population) has the One True Way and the other 99.7% of all human beings are just wrong

Herbert Armstrong: Satan Is Going To Use Interracial Marriage To Attack The Church

When you read this you can quickly see what a condescending prick HWA was at times.

 

Satan's Next Attack: 

 Today I want to speak on what may possibly be the very next attack that Satan will use against this church. I was studying at lunch before the meeting last Sabbath, with our minister there and he said "I think that very likely, the next attack of Satan" — now there was the attack of the State of California against us. There's been another attack that most of you don't even know anything about. It only hit a few of us at the top. But there has been trouble and don't you think there hasn't. Satan is on the job. But Christ is on the job and Christ is winning. And always will win! It's like my executive assistant, Bob Fahey said, he's looked at the book to see how it comes out in the end, and he says we win. Yes we do. That's the way it's going to turn out. At least Christ is going to win and we'll only win if we're on Christ's side. We don't need to worry about getting Christ over on our side. But he said, the thing that's going to hit this church next, that Satan's going to use, is interracial marriage. 

Oh the pity. People can sometimes get their feelings all stirred up to a red hot pitch on something of that kind. Their prejudices, their emotions, their feelings. God almighty created us all. He put us here for a purpose. And we don't have much longer. And we need to look into this. Now that was in New York City last Sabbath. On the plane, coming back, Mr. Fahey showed me a letter that had been handed to him from a member. I believe this member is in, yes, just across in New Jersey, just across from New York but had attended the service. And she had been talking to another member who lives in Philadelphia. And there'd been quite a heated conversation on the telephone. And I want to read you just one slight little bit of what was in that message and what is coming up in the church now. And you're going to have to — IF GOD BE GOD GET ON HIS SIDE. AND IF YOU WANT TO GO WITH THIS WORLD AND THE WAY IT'S GOING, GET OVER ON THAT SIDE, and go into the lake of fire with it. That's all I have to say.

I just want to read a few, this is about a 3 or 4 page letter, so, I'll just read a part of it. She says,

"During the conversation, [that's the telephone conversation, that's the telephone conversation she had with this woman in Philadelphia] it was stated that the blacks in God's church are dissatisfied with such doctrines that are not keeping with the current social trend in the world, which they feel are in keeping with the premises of international relationships that are a part of this nation's background" 

So we should go along with our nation and the social trends of the world. And this letter also says that they are trying to line up a group of blacks, TO GIVE ME AN ULTIMATUM! THAT I GET ON THE SIDE OF THE TRENDS, THE SOCIAL TREND OF THIS WORLD. OR ELSE! I'll tell you what I'll give them. I'll give them OR ELSE. I won't compromise one millionth of an inch. And if you will, you can go into the lake of fire if you want to. Now, I've never started a fight in my life but let me tell you, I've won every fight I've ever been in. But someone else always started it. I don't want to start a fight. I'm the servant of the Most High God. And I'm as much a servant of blacks or of yellows or of any other color, pinks, polka dots, anything you want to mention - and the like. But I know what God has said. And that's what I'm teaching you and that's the way this church is going to go. We're getting this church back on God's track. That's where it's going to be and that's where it's going to stay.