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.
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.
A friend sent me a complimentary copy as a gift.
First Edition
