Exit and Support Network has a letter up from an ex-PCG member who discusses how he and his family survived the horrific turn that hit Kentucky and other states over a 240 mile stretch.
He writes about the long held myths Armstrongism, and particularly with Gerald Flurry that those who leave the true faith are doomed to destruction.
As Gerald Flurry has stated countless times through pulpit, print and video, those ex PCG members “who have once been enlightened” (Hebrews 6:4 1) with the “truths” of Armstrongism and the additional special revelation given through “that Prophet” and then who reject these “revealed truths” are under God’s condign wrath and divine disapprobation. If you have in the past been exposed to HWA’s teachings and now Flurry’s new “truths” and refuse to act on what you have heard (called “dangerous knowledge”) then you are marked out for absolutely certain Eternal Death. GF has stated repeatedly in sermons and specifically in his booklet on Jude that Laodiceans who refuse to repent and support him and God’s Work are “twice dead, plucked up by the roots” (Jude 1:12 2). You would be better off going on a long drive next to a lake with Ted Kennedy.
In GF’s “uplifting” booklet on the prophet Ezekiel he gleefully describes in Ezekiel 9 how we rebellious Laodiceans will be special targets for God’s death angels to mercilessly seek out and destroy. We Laodicean men will be violently cut down in midstride along with our children and wives around us. Piles of the slain bodies of Laodicean men, women and children will fill the streets. Are you ready to send in your check to Edmond now? If you refuse to follow Gerald Flurry as “God’s Man” you will pay the ultimate price. As Mr. T told Rocky before the big fight–you’re Dead Meat.
The Churches of God, thanks to Herbert Armstrong, made a cottage industry out of lying to church members over this topic. Fear is the greatest motivator in keeping members in line. The fear of losing ones salvation for refusing to follow a COG leader has been powerful weapon used by many of these degenerate men. They get on the borderline of orgasmic ecstasy when describing the terrible things they want to see happen to ex-members. Their eyes glaze over at the shore destruction they want to see reign down.
The Flurry cult as well as many of the other splinter group leaders take great joy in the suffering they think Joseph Tkach suffered when he was dying of cancer. In their warped minds, their angry god was dishing out pain and suffering on Tkach Sr for daring to get rid of the abusive lies and other false teachings of the church, mainly things that are not required of New Covenant followers of Christ. But they don't care, they are so filled with hate in their hearts that they go into great detail describing the pain Tkach supposedly suffered at the hands of their angry god. Suffering in ways that no one from Tkach's family has ever described told to anyone. Instead these guys lie and lie and lie.
Stories were told to us while we were in the PCG how God would strike down and kill individuals in the church [PCG] who acted disobediently. The most famous one was how Joseph Tkach Sr. was “cursed” with a mortal sickness for telling church members during a Pasadena HQ sermon that it was OK to play golf on the Sabbath. People in the PCG had a lurid mathematical calculation about how Tkach Sr. was slated for destruction the moment he gave that message where he vouchsafed WCG members to tee off on a Saturday. I was told, “It was exactly 42 weeks after Joe Sr. gave that sermon when he was stricken with cancer.” What exactly the significance of the 42 week time period meant I never found out. Very graphic details were given of how Tkach Sr. was eaten up with cancerous sores and lesions from head to toe. Earnest descriptions of Tkach’s final hours, languishing in his hospital bed and under the thralls of unparalleled but well deserved suffering were told. Apparently people who went in to see him came out of his room weeping because of his state. The “rottenness of the bones” in Proverbs 14:40 was cited as absolute scriptural validation of Tkach’s just punishment. The lesson was this: if you rebelled against “God’s Truth” you were in the fast lane to destruction.
The writer then goes on to describe the world the Flurry's imagine happening:
According to “That Prophet’s” twisted theology, when God in the End of Days destroys the luckless inhabitants of the Earth (all who are not PCG members) we rebellious Laodiceans will be finally and deservedly destined to be mere ashes under the soles of the feet of GF and his most loyal devotees (Malachi 4:3). Yes, an Eternal death sentence to those who would dare to not contribute to the fund to fuel Flurry’s luxury private jet. Just imagine the world tomorrow. An endless eternal bliss of Riverdancing, Bible Studies, Spokesman’s Club, and everlasting fundraisers to perpetuate the Flurry dynasty throughout the entire Earth and beyond into the universe. The only TV shows allowed in the Millennium will be the Key of David and Ryan Malone’s Operatic masterpieces.
The writer then describes his experience with the tornado weather:
We live in a modest mobile home that in no way could have withstood the types of wind power that destroyed so many other better built structures that tragic night. It was around 3:30 a.m. when the worst of this storm system hit us. As my wife and I lay in our bed, we heard the howling wind buffet and shake our house. The siding on our home started to violently bang and slap back and forth as it was caught in the wind. I had a real mortal dread that the very sides of our home would be sheared away–exposing us to the elements. Then the large hail storm came and it felt as if it would come through the ceiling. We offered up earnest prayers to God in His Son’s name for protection. Here was the moment. Would God protect us through this storm safely or would Flurry’s dark prognostications against us prevail?
According to PCG doctrine, my family that night should have stood out glaringly to both God’s avenging angels and Satan’s destroying demons alike as prime targets for annihilation. There was not another Laodicean family around for 50-70 miles and for all practical purposes we have bull’s-eye targets painted on our backs!! Worse than that we had a Christmas tree in our living room lit up with all the ornaments on it!! HWA is spinning in his grave! We had a small miniature Christmas village set up on our coffee table just begging for us to be hopelessly wiped out! All the righteous indignation and fury in that storm should have been directly sent in our immediate vicinity as just punishment for our rebellion. Now the butcher’s bill is to be paid. Now we will experience the deadly consequences for rejecting Gerald Flurry as God’s man–the very man who will sit triumphantly in the Eschaton on Armstrongs’ prayer rock and be crowned king of Israel. Woe unto US!!!!
He ends his letter with this:
Friends, Flurry’s curses against those of us who have left the PCG are useless because Christ has become a curse for us (Galatians 3:13). The PCG teaches that all of us who do not keep God’s Mosaic Law as a means to salvation are under a curse. However in that same verse of Galatians is it written that Jesus has “redeemed us from the curse of the law”. Please don’t follow a man. Jeremiah 17:5 tells us that the real curse upon an individual is not a refusal to support Gerald Flurry– but in trusting a mere mortal man for spiritual deliverance and making “flesh his arm.”
Amen to that! No one and I repeat NO ONE will ever fear the wrath of the false god of Armstrongism and its degenerate leaders. None of them have the power to call down any curses on us. None of them will ever be the two witless witnesses. None of them will ever have an end time message that is worth listing to. None of them can ever take away any opportunity of salvation open to those who are followers of The Way.
