Reading PCG's Booklet, Human Nature: What Is It?

Let us now read Stephen Flurry's booklet, Human Nature: What Is It? This booklet teaches HWA's doctrine that "human nature" (the tendency to do undesirable things) is not innate to humans but actually comes from Satan as he transmits his rebellion nature into human minds similar to a TV transmission going into a TV set. This booklet was first printed in 1998. It was later revised in 1999, 2005 and 2011. For this post I will use the 2005 version, however that appears to be very similar to the current 2011 version. You can read the current version of this booklet on their website.

Let us begin.

For this post I am not going to quote much from this booklet because it is largely a recapitulation of some of HWA's teachings.

First Stephen Flurry begins by saying the human minds is wondrous, able to do all kinds of great things, yet utterly unable to solve the pressing problems of the world.

How can a mind that produces such incredible technology utterly fail when it comes to solving world problems? The answer: human nature. ... All of the evils plaguing society today can be blamed on the deceitful, wicked human nature in man. But that statement raises many vital questions: What is human nature? Where did it come from? Did God create it in man? God reveals the answers to these questions in the Bible. (p. 1.)

Then Stephen Flurry talks about the origins of Satan as the glorious archangel Lucifer who became corrupted by citing the proof texts of Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 which HWA often used (pp. 1-3). HWA taught that originally the angels were supposed to rule the universe under God but Lucifer sinned and rebelled, leading a third of the angels into launching a revolt to overthrow God. The revolt failed but the Earth and the entire universe had been destroyed by this. All this supposedly happened before the creation week described in Genesis 1 and 2.  

Then Stephen Flurry talks about how God created Adam and Eve and originally they did not have a rebellious attitude towards God, indicating that Adam and Eve did not have human nature at that time (p. 3). Starting here Stephen Flurry begins to quote an article by HWA from the June 1976 issue of Good News about this very topic. That article is quoted several times in this booklet.

Then Stephen Flurry talks about how God tends to create in dual stages, that although Adam and Eve were physically complete they were not yet spiritually complete. Rather they were to learn to acquire God's character by acting in a righteous way eventually becoming a God being as fully God as God is God, though of lesser authority and rank.

As discussed before this God Family doctrine is heretical and was never taught by the Christian church. It also contradicts Holy Scripture.

Isaiah 42:8: "I am the Lord: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images."
Isaiah 43:10: "Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me."

Isaiah 44:6: "Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel, and his redeemer the Lord of hosts: I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God..."

Isaiah 44:8: "Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have not I told thee from that time, and have declared it? ye are even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any." (Source.)

I would also like to share these words words from Felix Taylor, Jr. regarding the God Family doctrine.

Here is the nail in the coffin of my belief in the God Family doctrine in my study in 1991. Continuing on page 104, "The vision of the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21 goes completely against the doctrine that men can become God. The Apostle John describes,

A great voice from the throne saying, "Behond, the dwelling of God is with me. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God Himself will be with them; he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death sall be no more...for the former things have passed away"(vv.3-4)

Far from being identified with God as God, the redeemed are described as being in fellowship with God while at the same time remaining distinct and seperate beings. Verse seven promise that "He who conquers shall have this heritage, and I will be HIS GOD and he shall be MY SON"--a flat contradiction of the teaching that the destiny of the faithful is to be God."

Another aspect of the God Family doctrine which is never discussed in this booklet is that it is taught that church members will be superior in rank and glory then all those who will be resurrected after Christ's return. This aspect of elitism is discussed in my post concerning a sermon by the late Syd Hull (LCG) and my post concerning Stephen Flurry's booklet, God is a Family.

We now continue.

On page 4 there is a side box containing a quote from Mystery of the Ages concerning this topic.

Then Stephen Flurry says how human beings do not have a soul but instead they have a spirit essence that empowers the human brain to understand things to a degree impossible for animals (pp. 5-6). This doctrine was inherited from HWA. It appears to have been devised by Robert Kuhn. Stephen Flurry cites HWA's booklet, What Science Can't Discover About the Human Mind, in explaining this doctrine.

(Incidentally that booklet happens to teach that dinosaurs did not reproduce. Although it must be said that this bizarre teaching is more explicitly taught in The Incredible Human Potential. And PCG to this day continues to print this writings which contain this absurd teaching. PCG have not changed those words.)

On page 7 there is a side narrative containing a quote from The Missing Dimension in Sex concerning this topic.

The Missing Dimension in Sex is often attributed to HWA because that is what its later editions say, but actually several men were originally credited for that book, as mentioned in a previous post.

Also it only came to my attention this year [2013] that HWA did not write it alone. It's first edition, entitled God Speaks Out on the "New Morality", was written by several men, including Roderick C. Meredith, Ernest Martin, and Dr. Ralph Merrill. Apparently it was Merrill who made the diagrams in the book. So it seems to me that HWA was lying to WCG members by pretending he was sole author of that book in its later editions. I find it odd that even Meredith got his name scrubbed out of the book. And despite that rebuke to him Meredith continued to play along and continue serving HWA and getting his paycheck from the organization HWA started.

It is amazing how the contributions of these men were simply ignored in later editions of that book in order to glorify HWA.

We now continue.

Then Stephen Flurry talks about Satan deceiving Eve into believing that God was lying about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and tricked her into eating it. Adam then chose to eat the fruit knowing God had forbidden it. This act caused Adam and Eve to fall under the dominion of Satan so they were now subject to being under his influence causing them to behave in a manner contrary to their original innocence. And that is how "human nature" came to enter humanity (pp. 6, 8-11).

Stephen Flurry then defines "human nature" as being the tendency of humans to sin or to want to sin (pp. 11-12).

What is the solution to overcoming this sinful "human nature"? One is told to repent and be baptized. The reader is told that it is inevitable that Satan will continue to negatively influence you but that overcoming this pull is what all Christians endure and that is how you get to be a God being in the God Family. Stephen Flurry ends his booklet with these words.

Real love—God’s love—is action. It is keeping God’s Commandments. And unless our peoples stop talking about love and start obeying God’s law, the evils and moral depravity we see all around us will only get worse. Only when we make a stand, with firm resolve, and determine to live according to God’s way, will we ever eradicate the evil nature—actually Satan’s nature—which resides in the mind of man. Only then, when every human being rejects Satan’s way and seeks God’s Spirit-power, will we be able to solve the problems that plague mankind. (p. 13.)

Of course what one is not told in this booklet is that as far as Stephen Flurry is concerned they will say you are not a true Christian unless you join PCG. What this booklet does not say is that there are many stringent requirements for PCG members: paying three tithes and extra offerings, shunning anyone to be shunned (including the members of other COG groups who are labeled "Laodiceans"), abstaining from mainstream holidays, abstaining from unclean meats, abstaining from makeup, even in some extreme cases abstaining from doctors and medicine.

So we see that this booklet is trying to recruit new members into PCG in order to get more tithes payers by using heresies such as HWA's God Family doctrine.