PCG's Joel Hilliker Says Children Are Filled With Satan Inspired Human Nature And Are Savages

 

Joel Hilliker from the Philadelphia Church of God has an article up on the PCG website titled: "Twenty Years to Civilization"

Hilliker relates how he went to volunteer at his daughter's school and discusses how awful it was at times. Those nasty, heathen, satan-inspired children of the world really got to him.

After whining that all of the teachers were women and he and the other dads were the only positive male influence the kids had, he said this:

“When it comes to rearing children, every society is only 20 years away from barbarism,” Dr. Albert Siegel once wrote. “Twenty years is all we have to accomplish the task of civilizing the infants who are born into our midst each year. These savages know nothing of our language, our culture, our religion, our values, our customs of interpersonal relations. … The barbarian must be tamed if civilization is to survive.”

It’s a bit dramatic—but in a sense painfully true. Calling children savages certainly reflects reality far better than treating them like natural-born saints, sages and savants. Our Satan-inspired human nature represents a savage within each of us that must be civilized. Children have it in spades—unless we are diligent in confronting it. That’s why Proverbs 29:15 says, “The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.”

Where this reality truly smacked me in the face was on the playground at my daughter’s school. I spent three recesses outside—with first graders, then second graders, then fifth graders. Each successive mob was worse behaved. The fifth graders, having lived more years without being properly civilized, were genuine specimens of savagery. Everywhere I turned, I saw carnality on parade: name-calling, accusing, cursing, screaming, boasting, pushing, sulking, cheating.

I realized that most of these same kids had just been inside under the authority of effective, qualified teachers who had managed to keep a lid on this ugliness through productive, focused work. The level of human nature suddenly on display correlated precisely with the lack of government in their lives at that moment.

Having to admit the teachers were fairly good at keeping the kids under control in the classroom, he then makes this comment:

I realized that most of these same kids had just been inside under the authority of effective, qualified teachers who had managed to keep a lid on this ugliness through productive, focused work. The level of human nature suddenly on display correlated precisely with the lack of government in their lives at that moment.

Good old government. Where would the COG be without dragging out submission to proper government into the mix? COG government is the biggest failure in the COG today. Absolutely none of them follow the demands that their church government places upon them. If they did, they would not have apostatized and started hundreds of splinter groups.

After musing about his own kids being little savages, and how without proper attention and discipline they would be real savages like students in all of the worldly colleges today. He ends with this:

The task of civilizing the infants born into our midst is crucial—and great. Twenty years is all we have.

LCG Expecting East Coast Members To Drive To Church Two Days In A Row This Weekend, In Spite Of Crippling Gas Prices

As LCG gears up for Pentecost this weekend, HQ wants to make sure LCG members have both of their gas tanks full, their car, and their Holy Spirit tank. 

LCG members may be struggling this week to keep their physical gas tanks full in order to drive to church this weekend and for the next few weeks. A wise church leader would have said due to the current gas shortage on the east coast we will only be holding services only on Pentecost instead of forcing you to spend money traveling to church two days in a row. 

Better yet, Weston should have said, "we will be streaming services on Saturday and Pentecost in order to make your lives a little easier during this crisis."

The ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline here in the United States has shut off fuel supplies to Southern and Atlantic Coast states, causing more than a thousand gas stations to run out of fuel. North Carolina is the hardest hit, with about 70 percent of gas stations shut down. Panic buying in Florida, which is not dependent on the Colonial Pipeline system, has shut down 16 percent of their stations. This will affect in-person Sabbath and Pentecost attendance in some of the states hardest hit, but we are thankful for the infrastructure we have in the Church, due to the pandemic, to transmit services online. Of course, we all know that anything involving the Internet is vulnerable, and it is a good practice to have back-up available. As we see our world going from one disaster to another, let us remember God as our Creator this Sabbath, and the millennial rest the Sabbath foreshadows; and let us rejoice in the calling God has given to us as firstfruits of His harvest.—Gerald Weston

LCG members are also encouraged to send in offerings online, particularly if they can't drive to church.  It is always more important to have the money clinking in the till than worry about members struggling to make ends meet with food and bills while also having to deal with high gas prices and shortages. Offerings always trump food on the table. Besides, this way their hands don't have to touch the filthy lucre.

Pentecost Holy Day Offerings: U.S. Churches Only—Repeat Announcement
As we prepare for Pentecost, we want to let the brethren know how we will be handling the Holy Day offering. We encourage those who are able and want to donate online to make online Holy Day offerings. This greatly cuts down on the time and work required to process checks. Congregations holding in-person services on Pentecost will have an offertory message and collect an offering as we have normally done. If you attend in person and choose to donate online, simply write “online” on your offering envelope collected at services. For those who will not be able to attend services in person, we encourage making online donations, if possible, just as we did for the Days of Unleavened Bread.—Finance Department

LCG members must also never forget to keep their Holy Spirit tank topped off, even though the church generally depletes that account thanks to abusive ministers, draconian non-biblical rules, church government demands, and oppressive law-keeping. But, no matter what, have a profitable Pentecost!

Are You Filled with the Spirit? We read in the Scriptures inspiring accounts of numerous people who were “filled” with God’s Holy Spirit—John the Baptist, his mother Elizabeth, and his father Zacharias (Luke 1:15, 41, 67). On the day of Pentecost, the disciples were “all filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:4). Later, Peter and Paul are described as being “filled” with the Spirit (Acts 4:8; 9:17; 13:9). Paul admonished brethren, “do not be drunk with wine... but be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18). How do you become filled with the Spirit? If we repent and make a commitment at baptism and receive the laying on of hands, we are promised the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38). God gives His Spirit to those who obey His commandments (Acts 5:32). However, that Spirit must be nourished daily by regular prayer and Bible study if we are to be “filled” with the Spirit (2 Corinthians 4:16). Paul told Timothy to “stir up” the Spirit, indicating there are things we can and must do to become “filled” with the Spirit of God (2 Timothy 1:6–7). Let’s make sure we are doing our part to nourish and exercise the fruits of God’s Spirit so we can be instruments in His hands.
Have a profitable Pentecost, 

Douglas S. Winnail

Gerald Flurry: Premaritial salvation?

Gerald Flurry is on a roll lately in finding new ways to intimidate and make his dwindling flock of followers fearful of their standing with Flurry's creature god. 

The most urgent prophecies in the Bible are directed at God’s Spirit-begotten people. Why? Because eternal life is on the line. If they rebel and fail to repent of their sin, they will lose the opportunity to live forever in God’s Family. 

This is the very first paragraph in Flurry's article. PCG members are immediately threatened with not being a "spirit-begotten people", that their eternal life is on the line and that they will lose out on being a god in Flurry's god family. What a cheerful start!

A few have asked, “What is so bad about being dead for all eternity?” Looking at it physically, it isn’t that bad at all. But if you look at it spiritually, it’s catastrophic! It’s like turning away from a pile of precious jewels to a pile of dung. But even that comparison is inadequate to explain the firstfruits being called to marry Christ and then obscenely rejecting that invitation!

How can they "marry" someone they know nothing about? 

Then to scare people further and to further alienate his followers from family members no longer a part of the PCG, Flurry says this:

God’s loyal people who are in this marriage relationship are protected by Christ from the Great Tribulation—in His “skirts”! Remember Ezekiel 5, where, in the midst of the threefold destruction of Israel, God will take a few and bind them in His skirts (verses 1-3). God will protect His loyal Philadelphians. Those who aren’t protected (verse 4) will be cast into the fire. The Laodiceans are not bound in God’s skirts. They have rebelled against God and must also be punished in the Great Tribulation to get them to repent.

Everyone who has left PCG, refused to follow him into the PCG, or refused to heed his message is now Laodicean and MUST be punished by his angry god.

Only if PCG members heed the call of Flurry will they be protected.

To be bound in God’s skirts is God’s coded way of saying the Philadelphians grasp the marriage covenant with God and the Laodiceans don’t! The Laodicean Church has lost sight of this mind-staggering future as Christ’s wife.

Then the creep factor of Flurry's demented mind really kicks into action. Apparently, his creature called "christ" has already consummated his marriage to PCG members though they aren't married to him yet. Is this premarital salvation?

“Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready” (Revelation 19:7). Christ’s wife must be ready when He returns. We are now to be preparing for that fabulous marriage—which Christ looks upon as already being consummated! That’s why we are called His “wife”—not His fiancée. We must think about this marriage as our Husband does!It is extremely urgent that we get ready to be Christ’s wife for all eternity! This is the most exalted reward ever offered to any human being at any time! 

 

At baptism, the firstfruits make a marriage covenant to obey God and be born again as Christ’s wife. This far transcends the marriage covenant He made with the physical nation of Israel! Ours is a special marriage covenant available only to the firstfruits.

In order to whip his few followers into a premarital frenzy, Flurry states:

The highest level of priests for God in the World Tomorrow will be Christ’s wife! His wife has the responsibility to be king-priests forever—for all eternity! That is our calling today. This is why we must be tried and tested. This is the highest calling God has to offer! We can’t stumble into this responsibility. “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. …” (Revelation 19:7-9).

Nothing excites legalists in the COG more than thinking they will be gods in some future kingdom where they will wield rods of iron as kings and priests. What a miserable thought!

Did you know that COG members in other COG's are committing spiritual fornication? Flurry claims the god they follow is not the same as his god. Thus, they are engaged in fornication with that god.

Some Laodiceans think God will give them this mind-splitting reward if they just stay in a church! A church is not our husband—Christ is! We must learn to follow Him wherever He goes.

Why is there such a preoccupation with COG with sex and sexual innuendo?

“But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by …” (Ezekiel 16:15). The word fornications should be translated adultery! This is a higher level of sin. Ancient Israel was married to God. True Christians are married to Christ today. If we turn away from God to another god—as the end-time Laodiceans have done—it is adultery!

Flurry's god does not even exist so he has no foothold in lecturing the COG's about the god they follow. 

Remember, this is prophecy for today. Only God’s firstfruits can commit adultery in this end time, because only they are married to Christ.

Bible translators don’t understand about God’s marriage and God’s Family. That’s why they use the word fornications instead of adultery. 

 

Revelation 19:7 and Ezekiel 16:15 reveal how God views our calling now. This is why we can view this marriage as already consummated and yet to be consummated. All too often, we view this marriage humanly. We need to view it through God’s Holy Spirit. God views the marriage through perfect character. God made a covenant. It is as good as done. By labeling His people as His wife, God is teaching us to build His character and think as He does. When God says He will do something, it is always done. He never breaks a covenant. So when we are engaged to Christ, it’s the same as a marriage. A covenant to be married is the same as a marriage—the way God views it. With God’s Spirit we should view it the same way. 

 

However, there is the human element. We can fail and never be a part of that wedding. The lesson God is trying to teach is that a covenant is a promise to keep your word. And our word should be fulfilled, if we manifest the character of God. Our word should never be broken. So God judges us on the basis of our promise, or our covenant. At baptism we said we would marry Christ and meet all the covenant conditions. So God judges us on the basis of our word, or covenant, to become His wife. Once we actually become His wife, we cannot commit adultery, because we’ll be God—members of the God Family—and God cannot sin. Viewing it spiritually, we can commit adultery only during the engagement period.

Carnal-minded men can’t grasp the magnitude of our reward. It takes the Holy Spirit of God to grasp what God is offering His firstfruits! The Laodiceans have lost this marriage and Family of God concept because they are spiritually blind. This is the greatest mistake they or anyone on Earth can make today! God says this adulterous sin is no “small matter” (Ezekiel 16:20). We know that many of them will wake up before or during the Tribulation. But why must they be so rebellious that they allow Satan to turn them away from their most noble, majestic crown? On Pentecost: Remember the Marriage Covenant

I guess when you ignore everything about Jesus and his salvational works one is left with this kind of malarkey. Basic Christianity understands the works of salvation, why can't these perverted purveyors of Armstrongism do the same?