Raising the Ruins-Is It Reliable?

To any who are members of PCG or who sympathetically read the Trumpet, or watch the Key of David, or who believe what they say let me ask you a question. If you were wrong in something and I told you how would you react? Will you be angry and defensive, or will you be willing to weigh the evidence, to prove all things as is advised in the Bible. Knowledge can never harm the truth.

I feel it is now the perfect time to re-post my thoughts on Stephen Flurry's book, Raising the Ruins and also include some further thoughts I have had since I made that post.

Why?

Gerald Flurry's Philadelphia Church of God is now offering Stephen Flurry's book Raising the Ruins for free.

The chapters that were formerly online at Raisingtheruins.com can no longer be read. Though some links are still available there that lead to nothing.

Also when you order for your "free" copy it is required that you inform them how you learned of the book. Are they that desperate to find out how their recruitment efforts are going?

Because of this I wish to re-post my thoughts on this book with a few later additions. This is just a summary of my thoughts, the reasoning behind them may be reach through this post. Do not assume I rushed to these conclusions. Please look up on me and see if what I say is true. Knowledge cannot harm the truth.

"Raising the Ruins:

• Condemns Tkachite WCG for using its authoritarian power to unleash the Changes while to this day his own organization (PCG) is just as dictatorial as he claims WCG to be.

• Hails Ambassador Auditorium in Chapter 2 as a 'legacy that was neither heavy nor burdensome' naively ignoring the reality that it was a severe financial drain. This may explain why PCG decided to build Armstrong Auditorium.

• President Reagan's condolences were misleadingly presented as an endorsement of HWA ignoring the fact that President Reagan was a Sunday-keeper who never accepted Armstrongism.

• Shows contempt for Tkach Jr. calling Armstrongite acceptance 'spiritual rape' and implies that only Tkach Jr. (PCG views him as the Man of Sin of 2 Thessalonians 2) would be so wicked as to label 'accepting the Truth' in such a manner, when in reality that phrase is often used by many ex-members, not just Tkach Jr., the alleged Man of Sin.
  

• (All those points above may be seen here.)

• Approvingly quotes HWA's statement in Mystery of the Ages that 'Scholars and church historians recognize' that there was a 'Dark Curtain' upon church history in 50-150 AD when it has been conclusively proven that none of the historians HWA quoted believed in such a ridiculous theory. In reality the Dark Curtain (50-150 AD) theory was used to bestow a numerical significance to the World Tomorrow's first broadcast in Europe in 1953 so HWA could say the Gospel was suppressed for 100 19-year time cycles (1900 years). (See Raising the Ruins, Chapter 4.)
  

• Cites a PCG lawyer as saying that 'There is no rewriting of the book [Mystery of the Ages] that can happen....they can’t be rewritten.' (Chapter 19). An utterance which Gerald Flurry hailed as divinely inspired. 'He [Gerald Flurry] reminded Dennis Leap and me about what we had seen....God inspired Mark Helm’s oral argument at the Ninth Circuit.' (Chapter 20). And yet Gerald Flurry chose to go against what he himself acknowledged as divinely inspired words and altered Mystery of the Ages, going against an aspect of Armstrongite understanding of church government that dates to at least 1953 concerning the role of New Testament Prophets.

• Deceptively hides and obscures from the unsuspecting the hard facts of the medicine ban which is imposed on PCG members to this very day.

• Advances PCG's fixation on January 16 despite the many problems this doctrine has.

• Desperately tries to portray Tkach Sr. as just a puppet and that instead Tkach Jr. was the mastermind of the Changes. This is done to hide the fact that Gerald Flurry made a failed prophecy in which he originally labeled Tkach Sr. as the Man of Sin of 2 Thessalonians 2. He now says Tkach Jr. fulfills that role.

• Focus solely on the struggles between WCG and PCG, almost totally hiding from the unsuspecting readers knowledge of other Armstrongite splinter groups.
  

• Gives the impression that only PCG is trying to preserve HWA's writings. Yet others have been involved in the task of preserving HWA's writings, including one Don Tiger who used to be associated with PCG. Their contributions to spreading HWA's writings and Mystery of the Ages are contemptuously ignored.

• Says PCG must expose the wrongs of WCG completely hiding the fact that many others, Armstrongite and non-Armstrongite, have fulfiled that role with gusto.

• Idolatrously extols Mystery of the Ages for much of Chapter 16. This among other things, hides the fact that PCG has given themselves the liberty of corrupting the words of Mystery of the Ages, the very book they supposedly love so much.

• Omits much vital information that would cause many potential recruits to ignore PCG, such as: 1) Gerald Flurry being hailed as That Prophet, 2,3) Second and Third Tithes, 4) that Malachi's Message is the Little Book and 5) was revealed to Gerald Flurry by a mighty angel and 6) unsurprisingly hides the fact that Malachi's Message was plagiarized, 7) that ex-members and 'Laodiceans' are shunned by PCG members.

• Claims that the Book of Habbakkuk was a prophecy about the Court Case predicting the outcome of the Court Case. Would God help an organization that has been as deceptive as has been shown here?
  

• (The last six points may be seen here.)"

Furthermore this book also

• Inaccurately imply that WCG wanted to suppress their religion what in fact all they did was try to stop them from distributing WCG copyrighted works. WCG was not trying to stop their recruitment efforts or prevent PCG from creating their own Armstrongite writings respecting their freedom to believe this heresy.

• Cites seven men (Seven the supposed number of completion) to show what a great man HWA was when none of those seven men have chosen to associate themselves with PCG.

• Confusingly defines plagiarism narrowly as just word-for-word "copying". Uncredited copying is plagiarism but plagiarism is more than that and can also involve taking one's ideas and presenting them as one's own. More on that topic may be seen here.
  

How can anyone trust a book or an organization so misleading? Would God who cannot lie support such an organization?

Why have PCG made this book free?

They know if they can conquer one's mind the money from the three tithes will flow into their coffers. They want peoples' minds. Having stock of the book which will not sell is no good to the Organization. So they have calculated that if they give it "for free" they will be able to influence enough minds who will give them a tithe and then the three tithes. An example of how these tactics work may be seen here.

Raising the Ruins is not a reliable book. We cannot trust it.