Gerald Flurry Creates A New Standard On Forgiveness

Unless of course,

you are in the

Philadelphia Church of God 

Gerald Flurry has never been known for showing mercy and forgiveness to his members and to those who help run his empire. Those who assist him in his devious work of blasphemy are as equally abusive as he is.  Just look at the past reports about Wayne Turgeon and the things he as done to Philadelphia Church of God members.  Forgiveness and mercy as concepts unknown to the PCG.

Now, Gerald Flurry trots out Jesus so he can justify telling PCG members to cut off all ties to former members and family members who have left the PCG. Flurry now tells his members that church members, like Jesus, do not need to forgive anyone in the church who has wronged them or have been kicked out, until they repent and return to the fold.

Do you understand the subject of forgiveness? Do you view it as God does? The world is very confused on the subject, and there has been misunderstanding even in the Church of God. 

In the March-April Royal Vision, we printed an article titled “Forgiving Others.” The article contained errors that caused confusion. This is a foundational subject, so we need to make sure we have a proper understanding of it. 

The article started by saying, “We are all sinners. We all need forgiveness. … That forgiveness is contingent on two things: 1) We must repent—meaning a change in our thoughts, actions and desires; and 2) we must forgive others. Jesus Christ made this abundantly clear throughout His ministry.” 

Did you catch the grievous error made above?  Flurry goes on to reveal what his god has told him:

The second point was the premise of the whole article. But it is incorrect. And if the premise is wrong, then the entire article will be wrong. 

How do we receive forgiveness ourselves? “Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:14-15). These are the biblical conditions to forgiveness: repent and believe. 

Herbert W. Armstrong wrote, “If we repent and believe, then by divine miracle God’s Holy Spirit removes the death penalty from us. Our sins are forgiven by the blood of Christ, and we are saved from the second death!” (Plain Truth, June-July 1982). The Ambassador College Bible Correspondence Course reinforced this by saying, “Not until we repent of sin, believe and begin to obey God can we be forgiven (Lesson 25).” Repentance and belief are the conditions the Bible describes for us to receive forgiveness ourselves—not repentance and forgiving others. 

It is true that Jesus Christ said: “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matthew 6:14-15). However, this has been broadly misunderstood and misapplied, as it was in that Royal Vision article. I want to show you what Christ meant and what He did not mean. 

Notice that Flurry has decided what Jesus did not mean, and he lets PCG members know that everytime they sin they are recrucifying Jesus Christ.  Even worse, he claims that PCG members must not forgive others because they do not know if their god has forgiven them or not.

Here is a good summation of the incorrect view of Christ’s statement, as it appeared in our March-April issue: “This applies if we have committed a sin that has (in addition to costing the life of Christ) caused damage to someone else. But what do we do when we are the one wronged? We must forgive, irrespective of how much or how little the other party has ‘done right’ by us to fix whatever they’ve caused. Again, none of us can forgive as God does—and we must forgive, even without knowing whether or not God has truly forgiven them.” 

That is simply not true, and it is a serious mistake. We do not forgive “irrespective of how much or how little the other party has done right by us to fix whatever they’ve caused.” We don’t forgive “without knowing.” 

We must see this as God does.

Flurry goe son to say that the words that Jesus said on the cross to the two thieves was only valid for them because they were "unconverted."

The article pointed to the fact that Jesus Christ and Stephen asked for God to forgive their persecutors. When Christ was being crucified, He said, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). Stephen demonstrated the same attitude toward those ready to stone him when he said, “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge” (Acts 7:60).

“We might justify our lack of forgiveness saying that the other party needs to show ‘fruits meet for repentance,’” the article continued. “That is not what Jesus Christ or Stephen were looking for when they made those statements of forgiveness.” But let’s examine the context of those examples.

When Christ and Stephen made those statements, they were talking about unconverted people who, as Christ said, “know not what they do.” We must understand the distinction in how God is working with those in the Church, who know the truth of God, and those in the world, who do not. There are two different approaches.

Those in the world don’t know; they are ignorant of what God teaches. Even when they persecute us, they don’t know what they are doing. When they killed Christ, they didn’t truly know what they were doing. Christ held no bitterness toward those people; He understood they were ignorant of what they were doing. 

His interpretation only gets worse:

Jesus Christ gave His life a ransom for all (1 Timothy 2:6). He gave His life in advance of our repentance. When Christ said, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do,” He was showing His attitude, His state of mind, His willingness to forgive. He died to make forgiveness possible for those “who know not what they do.” Christ died for all of us before we did any repenting or believing. 

This is an attitude we all need. 

Now, here is an important point to note: When Christ asked God to forgive those crucifying Him, did God forgive them at that point?No, He didn’t. Did Christ forgive those people of their sins at that time? No, He didn’t, but He was willing to forgive them. And He showed by example that we need to be willing to forgive. 

Have those killers been forgiven? No! But they will be forgiven once they repent! God does not actually forgive until there is evidence of repentance. Christ was simply illustrating the willingness to forgive. Those people didn’t know God!

It is a different circumstance, however, with people who know God. This is an important distinction we need to understand.

Is it any wonder that PCG members commit suicide?  What hope do they ever have?  How can they ever have faith in the creature they call "christ" who only has a "willingness" to forgive?  Flurry is like the rest of the Church of God leadership who have no idea who Jesus is or what he came to do and what he accomplished.  They don't know because they were taught by a man who did not know either. That is the sick legacy of Herber Armstrong.

The sickness gets even worse:

God’s law can be summarized in two great commands: Love God with all your heart, soul and might; and love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:36-40). 

If you serve someone in the world, that falls under the category of loving your neighbor. However, Jesus Christ said that if you serve someone in the Family of God, then you are showing that same love toward God (e.g. Matthew 25:34-40). When God says that we are His Family, He means that we are His Family! The world is not our family yet—though they will soon have that opportunity. 

Your neighbor in the world has not even been called yet (Genesis 3:24). He is not in danger of eternal death as those of us in God’s Church are. At the fulfillment of the Last Great Day, God will call the people of the world—our neighbors. They will be resurrected and have their day of salvation (Ezekiel 37; John 7:37). 

By contrast, anybody called during this age will either be in God’s Family or become ashes under the saints’ feet! (Malachi 4:3). Our salvation is at stake! 

Because of this distinction, there is a big difference in how we are to administer the Spirit of forgiveness within the Family of God and how we are to administer it to the world, our neighbors. 

Christ and Stephen demonstrated the attitude we must have as we take God’s warning message to the largest audience possible—the world, our neighbor, those cut off from access to God—against fierce opposition. As the pressure from those in the world builds against us, our attitude must be, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” Those of the world, our neighbors, do nothave a relationship with God; they do not know Him. They are not being judged now. 

But those in God’s Church do know God. We are His spiritual children; we are being judged now (1 Peter 4:17). 

As His spiritual children, God holds us accountable for our words and actions in our relationship with Him and in our relationships with each other. Where we sin against God or grieve a spiritual brother, God requires reconciliation in both relationships through repentance.

And on the craziness goes:

When we are dealing with Church members who have sinned, there are times we must mark people and put them out of the Church. When we do so, God says to avoid them (Romans 16:17). We must avoid them—not forgive them—until they show “fruits meet for repentance” (Matthew 3:8). We don’t forgive them,and we don’t allow them back to services, until they have repented. That is the whole objective when people are put out of the Church: It’s about repentance. It’s about waiting until they have repented and believed—but especially repented. (A big part of their problem may just be a lack of faith and they have to build that more and more, but we do accept repentance.) 

The congregation in Corinth had the wrong perspective on forgiveness. They had made a horrible mistake by keeping this man in. As Paul wrote, “a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump” (1 Corinthians 5:6). If you leave sin in the Church and just forgive without dealing with it, then you will destroy the whole Church! 

That hasn’t been happening in God’s Church today, but there is still some misunderstanding of this subject that makes us vulnerable. This is a fundamental lesson we must learn, and we have to make sure something like this is corrected. If we do not differentiate between how we administer the Spirit of forgiveness to our neighbor and our brother, it could endanger our spiritual lives!

Even ministers need to remember this. Hebrews 5:1-2 give us an important perspective: “For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrificeshe himself also is compassed with infirmity.”

We ministers are just as human as the people we serve. But we do have an office, and we do have the authority to help keep the Church on track.

God says here that if somebody is ignorant or out of the way, a minster must go and correct that person—but he had better realize that he himself is encompassed with infirmities. He has problems, too, and shouldn’t correct God’s people like they are the only ones who have problems. If we are not careful when we do correct, we can begin to get into more than criticism, to where it is almost like condemning somebody.

I am encompassed with infirmities just like you are. And I hope and pray I always have judgment, mercy and faith, and that I love you the way God does. I will do that, although I certainly won’t do it perfectly.

This is God’s Church, and Jesus Christ is the Head of it. We really need to be a loving family, concerned about every individual in this Church. We must make sure if we have to say anything corrective that we know how to do it. Let’s not make it hard to get along and to be family. Let’s make it clear to each other that we really do love each other. If you are correcting somebody, make sure he really knows you love him—and you’re not just hammering him because he’s wrong. There is a big difference.

After all the evil the man has done in the PCG and lives he and his henchmen have destroyed, he dares to say this:

It’s not easy to accept correction, and if you come at somebody like a truck, then it will make it awfully hard to take. When you correct, you had better try hard to be merciful, or it is going to come back on you.

If we are God’s people, we are people with mercy. If we don’t have mercy on each other, our own Family, then we are not getting it.

Government is a great gift of God—we can do so much with it if we use it God’s way. I know a lot of people who came out of the Worldwide Church of God and who were really good at detecting evil within that church, but they still turned away from the truth and are not here today. They saw the evil within that church, but they didn’t see the evil within themselves. We all need to be looking at ourselves first! (1 Corinthians 11:28; 2 Corinthians 13:5).

We all make mistakes, and I think the Family of God understands that. We are not perfect, but we certainly want to be as perfect as we possibly can (Matthew 5:48). We must get this right in order to truly serve God as we should. 

You can read the entire article here:  How to Administer the Spirit of Forgiveness 

One thing COG leaders never learned

The ENTIRE ACOG movement can fit in the Tuscon Feast site today.

courtesy fo SHT

While HWA Was Globetrotting, and was receiving 1, 2, 3T, offerings, and about to open the Auditorium.

Worldwide News 5/28/73

submitted by SHT

I remember in the 1970's collecting newspapers, selling orange and cashing in soda pop bottles in order to send money in to build Herbert's monument.  Even worse was selling those hideous 10 Commandments wall plaques! 

Through all of this Herbert was globetrotting talking about a "strong hand from someplace" while we all struggled to live normal lives after sending in so much of our money.

UPDATED: New Book: A River Could Be A Tree: A Memoir by Angela Himsel

A River Could Be A Tree: A Memoir by Angela Himsel

From Indiana To The Upper West Side, A Pilgrim’s Progress

Angela Himsel’s long and winding spiritual road to Judaism.

On the Saturdays of her childhood, Angela Himsel and her 10 siblings, along with their parents, piled into an old Cadillac and would drive an hour and a half across Indiana to a rented hall in an old gray building. As faithful members of the Worldwide Church of God, they’d listen to preachers shout about the End of Days.

Yes, Saturdays. Following church doctrine, they celebrated Jewish holidays, eschewed medicine and doctors, didn’t eat pork or shellfish, tithed much of their minimal income to the church and believed that the world was about to end. And then, Jesus would arrive, and they — if they hadn’t sinned — had been chosen to witness that.

Himsel’s memoir, “A River Could Be a Tree” (Fig Tree Books), tells of her odyssey from rural Indiana to the Upper West Side of Manhattan, where she now lives; from a life bound by the tenets of the Worldwide Church to her conversion and embrace of Judaism. She’s a brave guide, full of humanity, honesty, Midwestern humility and humor. As she explains in an interview, she first fictionalized her story into a novel, and then spent a decade creating the non-fiction narrative, doing interviews and research to assure accuracy.

Read the entire article here: From Indiana To The Upper West Side, A Pilgrim’s Progress

UPDATED:   

Journalist’s memoir traces jump from doomsday church to NY Orthodox Jewish mom

Did you have no inkling that the leaders were using money tithed by members to support their own lavish lifestyles, or that the leaders themselves were not adhering to church teachings?

I think my [Catholic and Lutheran] grandparents told my parents that it was just a cult that wanted their money. It’s an amazing thing that we have this ability to ignore what everyone around us is saying and just assume that they don’t know the mind of God, that they aren’t chosen, that they don’t understand. There are none so blind as those who will not see.

What is your view of the Worldwide Church of God now?

I find them despicable. They were responsible for so much suffering. Not just mental and spiritual suffering, but physical, as well. Because they insisted that you would be healed by faith, there were a lot of people who died as a result. That’s murder. I know that these people had free will, but their kids did not. The kids were at the mercy of their parents’ choices and decisions, and that still goes on today in various churches and religions. Any church that would deny children access to healthcare is not exactly Godly, let’s just say that.

Angela Himsel’s sister Abby, who died at age 13. (Courtesy)

Your own sister Abby died at 13 after suffering from an apparent heart ailment for several years. Your parents relied only on faith healing, yet you do not express any anger or resentment toward them.

I think that they did take her to the doctor after she got sick. And I also think that the doctors in Jasper were not great. My opinion is that she was never [properly] diagnosed . I don’t recollect them taking her to Indianapolis to see specialists. I think my parents did try to get medical care at the beginning, but they did not pursue it any further. They just let it go on for years.

I don’t blame my parents because they actually believed that God would heal Abby. From their perspective, they were getting the same thing as surgery. They really did. They believed it. It is heartbreaking.

Amazon review:

How does a woman who grew up in rural Indiana as a fundamentalist Christian end up a practicing Jew in New York?  

Angela Himsel was raised in a German-American family, one of eleven children who shared a single bathroom in their rented ramshackle farmhouse in Indiana. The Himsels followed an evangelical branch of Christianity—the Worldwide Church of God—which espoused a doomsday philosophy. Only faith in Jesus, the Bible, significant tithing, and the church's leader could save them from the evils of American culture—divorce, television, makeup, and even medicine. 

From the time she was a young girl, Himsel believed that the Bible was the guidebook to being saved, and only strict adherence to the church's tenets could allow her to escape a certain, gruesome death, receive the Holy Spirit, and live forever in the Kingdom of God. With self-preservation in mind, she decided, at nineteen, to study at The Hebrew University in Jerusalem. But instead of strengthening her faith, Himsel was introduced to a whole new world—one with different people and perspectives. Her eyes were slowly opened to the church's shortcomings, even dangers, and fueled her natural tendency to question everything she had been taught, including the guiding principles of the church and the words of the Bible itself. 

Ultimately, the connection to God she so relentlessly pursued was found in the most unexpected place: a mikvah on Manhattan's Upper West Side. This devout Christian Midwesterner found her own form of salvation—as a practicing Jewish woman.
Himsel's seemingly impossible road from childhood cult to a committed Jewish life is traced in and around the major events of the 1970s and 80s with warmth, humor, and a multitude of religious and philosophical insights. A River Could Be a Tree: A Memoir is a fascinating story of struggle, doubt, and finally, personal fulfillment.