When Family Members Are Part Of A Cult

 

PCG: "Do you fellows look upon the woman you want to marry as a sister?" And Other Convoluted Beliefs For Singles

 

The Philadelphia Church of God has an article up by Joel Hilliker about being single in the church.

Here are some of the convoluted beliefs of the PCG:

• What is your big goal in life? Like it or not, for true Christians, the answer is family. 

• We are destined to be born into the God Family as Gods! Our entire lives today are meant to prepare us for that future—to teach us to become more and more like God! 

• Righteous character is God’s greatest, most magnificent creation—His masterpiece! And He is working on that masterpiece within you. However, this requires your acquiescence, your full cooperation, your total submission. That is what makes it so challenging for Him. 

• Your part in allowing God to create His character is your greatest, noblest challenge! 

• Physical human families are the first thing God uses. Physical family is one of His most powerful tools for destroying human nature and helping us grow in godly character. 

• The Church family is a fantastic way to crush your human nature and get you ready for the God Family! Those in the Church are people with whom God wants you regularly practicing His love!

• Confront the shallow notion that “single” is opposite of “family.” God is preparing you for eternal family life—and He wants to use your experience as a single in His Church to help in that process!  

• Your spiritual family provides you unique opportunities to confront your carnality and to build righteous thinking and godly character.

• The women in the Church—the women you date—are sisters first! “First of all, she’s a sister—a member of the Family of God! The Family of God comes first! 

• Mr. Flurry continues, “Do you fellows look upon the woman you want to marry as a sister? Is she really like a sister to you, spiritually? Or do you just skip over that part?” 

• Dating is a service—an act of giving to the family. It is a way of providing companionship to brothers and sisters in Christ. When you serve in this way, you are drawing those you date closer into the spiritual family and enriching their experience within God’s Church. And on top of that, you are also taking a hammer to your own selfishness! You are becoming more like God! ‘Single’ Is Not the Opposite of ‘Family’

As with all things in Armstrongism, the goal is to look inward to the closed system instead of outward to the world, bringing the kingdom into a reality one person at a time.

Gerald Flurry: God Slams Door In PCG's Face In Spite Of Fast Meant To Con God Into Approving Geralds Plans

 

Recently Gerald Flurry declared a fast in order to force his god into allowing the Philadelphia Church of God to open a new institute in Israel. That fast was a deliberate attempt to force the god of Flurryism to do what Flurry wants, after all, "he is Eliakim and that God gives him “extra authority to open and shut doors”; that he is a father to the inhabitants of Judah, and that God has a work for him to do in Israel."

It is always so delightful to watch these self-appointed fools leading COG's today get their comeuppance. 

Exit and Support Network says:

GF’s “Open Doors” Are Turning Into Closed Doors: 

 

November 28, 2021 

 

Concerning the November 21 letter “Members Fasting Today / GF’s Need for New Stimulation,” it looks like God may have responded to their fast. 

 

GF said in his co-worker letter [see November 8 and November 13 letters above] that he wanted to make sure God is behind what they had decided to do. 

 

First of all, he said that he already decided to start his Armstrong Mazar Institute in Jerusalem, rather than seek God’s will on this fast day. He wanted to make sure God was behind his decision and, in other words, he wanted to petition God to get in line and back his decision. 

 

It seems God has responded with a big fat NO! Within a few days of their fast, an omicron [i.e., small] variant of the coronavirus was identified, and now Israel has shut their borders! How will they do this work in Judah that they keep going on about? 

 

As Flurry stated in his December 5, 2019 co-worker letter, referring to Isaiah 22:20-22, that he is Eliakim and that God gives him “extra authority to open and shut doors”; that he is a father to the inhabitants of Judah, and that God has a work for him to do in Israel. 

 

Never mind the fact that he thought the first building was the “open door”; then that fell through so he switched to another building and when that, too, fell through, he said there was no building and that the relationship with David Be’eri was the open door. 

 

Once coronavirus hit the scenes, he was shut out of Israel and his work came to a stop there. Once again, he’s trying to dupe his followers into thinking that God is opening up Israel for him. 

 

It is clear to even “blind Freddy” that God is not with the PCG, that God is not supporting their work, that God is not answering their prayers and that Gerald Flurry is a mere weak man with no authority to do anything in Israel. History has proven this and history tells us that he will never to do a work in Israel and his followers are deluded to believe so. 

 

It is time for people to wake up to the fact that there is no open door and that Flurry and his goons are con artists and scammers. They have no interest in doing anything for God. They are simply in it for themselves. There is no reward for those who follow him. –M.K.

Just in Time for Christmas: Rescuing the Bible From Fundamentalism Revised Edition

 A friend sent me a complimentary copy as a gift.

First Edition

Updated Version.

( That's me in the crib taken from long lost and never until now developed negatives recently found by a relative. )

Philadelphia Church of God Gaslights Its Youth On How They Treasure Family During Thanksgiving

 

If you were to poll Church of God members on which church group treasured families, the Philadelphia Church of God would be right at the top...NOT!

Other than the Restored Church of God, there has never been a COG that actively sought to destroy families and marriages with diabolical man-made teachings concerning associating with "Laodiceans" and family members who may have left the church than what we see in the PCG today.

It has been well documented here on Banned, Exit and Support Network, The Painful Truth, Living Armstrongism, and personal stories on hundreds of Facebook pages and blogs over the last 2 3/4 decades on how the PCG has ripped families apart. Parents turned against their own children. Children against parents. Husbands against wives. Grandparents against grandchildren and so on. Divorces have been the result. And sadly an untold number of suicides have been the legacy of these demonic teachings.

The PCG acts like they are doing nothing wrong and that this is necessary to keep the "purity" of the church from being tainted by unbelievers. Besides, God will eventually save them in the end so don't worry about them today.

The other day in an article to the youth of the PCG, Eric Burns to that gaslighting to an entirely new level.

The very first sentence starts off with this:

Thanksgiving is a day about family—it’s a day about being grateful for all the blessings that each one of us has been given.

A couple paragraphs later:

Most Americans celebrate Thanksgiving by gathering at home with family or friends for a feast of turkey, sweet potatoes, cranberries and pumpkin pie. And while some may take a moment to consider the blessings they have, fewer and fewer take the time to really reflect on what marvelous and miraculous blessings this nation has been given over the past 200 years or so of its existence. What about us? How thankful are we for the tremendous blessings we have been given in God’s Church? 

Then Burns says this: 

When was the last time we really took stock of our lives, of the many and varied blessings that God has poured out on us, and shared that appreciation with our Father? This season is an excellent time for each one of us to pause and reflect, not only on the material blessings that God has richly shared with us, but—more importantly—to examine all the spiritual blessings that we may be taking for granted.

When have Philadelphia Church of God members ever actually taken stock of their lives and what the church has done to them? 

Did they give thanks at the table on Thanksgiving for kicking their teenager out of the house? Did they give thanks for the child they were told to take to the mall and abandon so the state would take care of it so that they could send in the money it took to take care of that child? Did they give thanks for the wife, daughter or son that committed suicide because of PCG's teachings and family abandonment? Did they give thanks for their children they leave destitute because they gave all their money to keep the Gerald Flurry and Lil'Stevies families living the high life? Did they give thanks for Wayne Turgeon?

Never in the history of the Church of God movement have we seen such diabolical splinter groups as we have seen in the Philadelphia Church of God and the Restored Church of God. 

If you are a youth in the Philadelphia Church of God your very life may be at stake. The leadership truly does not care about you, and your very own family may not if you ever decide to take that wild and wonderful step away from the church for true freedom.