Reading PCG's Booklet, Conspiracy Against Fatherhood

Let us now read Gerald Flurry's booklet, Conspiracy Against Fatherhood. This booklet was published in 1999. At first glance it appears to be a denunciation of divorces and the problems caused by them, but as we shall see below this is not really the case. Unlike most other PCG booklets it has not been reprinted since then. You can read this booklet on their website.

This booklet is based on Gerald Flurry's article in the September-October 1999 Philadelphia Trumpet, Conspiracy Against Fatherhood.

At first glance this booklet seems to be a condemnation of the breakup of families. But actually after this Flurry goes into a condemnation of evolution as nonsense (pp. 2-4). I am not interested on dwelling on that topic here because many churches, mainly non-COG, also teach against evolution so this teaching is not unique to the COGs.  It is also worth noting that this booklet never mentions the particular doctrines of PCG in regards to this, that the Universe was created a long time ago but Satan's fall caused the Universe to be degraded and it was only then that the events of Genesis 1 and 2 occurred.

The August 23, 1999, feature article in Time magazine was titled “How Man Evolved.” Notice that is an absolute—no room for disagreement whatsoever, even though evolution is an unproved and unprovable theory. (p. 2.)

After swelling at length on condemning evolution he ends his condemnation with these words.

That is the typical way people act when they have strong beliefs and little or no proof! These people cling to evolution in faith—like some extreme cult. (p. 4.)

How ironic that the leader of a movement often called a cult labels others as being "like some extreme cult."

Flurry responds by quoting HWA in The Missing Dimension in Sex (pp. 5-6). (Actually that book was originally written by several men, including Roderick C. Meredith, Ernest Martin and Ralph Merrill. However, while under HWA, all their names were deleted in later editions in order to aggrandize HWA. I wonder how Meredith felt having his name blotted out from that book? That happened while HWA was alive.)

Flurry further condemns evolution by mocking such persons as bringing the world on the verge of human extinction with the creation of nuclear weapons.

These educated men have brought us to the brink of human extinction with our nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. ... The same Christ who prophesied this nuclear catastrophe about 2,000 years ago also created life—and not through evolution. Unless He returns, man has no hope!

But that hope is being destroyed through the false teaching of evolution, and man is heading into a nuclear tribulation of suffering, unparalleled in our history.

Is that what it will take to wake us from our ignorance and blindness? Must we experience this blackest of all nightmares before we awaken? We could avoid the Great Tribulation if only we would heed God’s warning. (pp. 6-7.)

Flurry then claims that those reading this booklet are experiencing God's love, in other words that God is speaking to the reader through this booklet.

This very message you are reading reveals God’s love and His desire to avoid that towering disaster. (p. 7.)

Would God work in such a way through a man who plagiarized from The Letter to Laodicea by Jules Dervaes (written December 1986-January 1988) to write Malachi's Message? The man I speak of here is Gerald Flurry. Dervaes' writing was sent to 237 WCG ministers including Gerald Flurry and John Amos. In fact on September 26, 1990 Jules Dervaes sent a letter to Gerald Flurry in which he denounces Malachi's Message as "a direct and clear plagiarism" of his work.

It is time we wake up to what is happening to fatherhood, the family and our society. Now, let’s take a closer look at why the teaching of evolution destroys the family—and fatherhood. (p. 7.)

At first glance this booklet appears to be about family values. But within this booklet Flurry uses this booklet to condemn evolution.

After that Flurry cites Matthew 19 to argue that Jesus believed that Adam and Eve were literal persons therefore telling the reader they need to believe this as well (pp. 7-9). Many non-COG churches also teach this as well. This does not prove that Gerald Flurry is the only man with whom God is communicating with.

Flurry asserts that God established the institution of the family among humanity and as part of this institution (according to Flurry) the husband is to rule over the wife.

The whole feminist movement has rebelled against any man ruling the family—God’s way. They want to build the family their way. They refuse to be Christians—Christ’s way. If they ever expect to get beyond this life, they must repent. (p. 8.)

And just like that Flurry threatens the eternal salvation of everyone involved in the feminist movement, or, more importantly, anyone who thinks of the family in a way different from what Gerald Flurry teaches.

Starting on page 9 Flurry begins to quote a lot from an article in the May-June 1970 issue of Tomorrow's World (pp. 9-12). The article was written by David L. Antion. It is entitled "Is There a Conspiracy Against Fatherhood?" (Tomorrow's World, May-June 1970, pp. 40-43, 50.) So now we see where this booklet's title came from. These facts about this article is never mentioned in Flurry's booklet.

David Antion's article is all about condemning homosexuals. PCG, like most COGs, condemn homosexuality as sinful, but strangely enough little of that is too be found in this booklet of Flurry's. Flurry does allude to Sodom and Gomorrah on page 9, but only as part of a long quote from David Antion's article. He does not dwell on condemning homosexuality for long here, which seems odd to me. However this booklet is quite short and so it is quite vague regarding the intricacies of COG doctrine.

Flurry quotes David Antion's article to assert that once modern society (he mainly means America and Britain) abandons the institution of the family (as Flurry teaches it) then PCG's God will destroy America and Britain in the Great Tribulation just like Sodom and Gomorrah.

Interspersed with this fear mongering that the Great Tribulation will soon occur Flurry alludes to the God Family doctrine PCG inherited from HWA (like just about every other COG group).

God is bringing many sons to glory. We must become born sons of God. We will then have God’s own character to rule over the earth and the universe.

The family of man pictures the God family! God created the human family to get us into His family! THE TEACHING ABOUT EVOLUTION IS A VILE INSULT TO OUR AWESOME ORIGIN AND POTENTIAL! (p. 11.)

The God Family doctrine is contrary to what is taught and believed by the vast majority of Christians. Also the God Family doctrine is contrary to 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." (From Mike of Mike's Enlightenment Page.)

Flurry ends his booklet with these words.

People who fight and war against fatherhood are little more than puppets of the devil, and they use Satan’s tactics in their warfare. He is behind the conspiracy to destroy fatherhood.

Our time before the Great Tribulation is also short. Passivists [sic] will not survive Satan’s onslaught. If ever there was a time to take a stand for God, now is that time. Soon Christ will be here and the whole world will become a part of our spiritual Father’s family. The sad part is how much man must suffer before he learns that lesson. (p. 12.)

Note how Flurry states that the Great Tribulation will occur in a short time. It is now fifteen years since this booklet was published. Just how soon does Flurry expect the Great Tribulation to occur? Note what Flurry wrote in another booklet in 2003.

Here we see a small group of people with a God-sized message. The whole world should heed today. But most people won’t become converted until Christ returns—which is probably within 10 to 15 years or less. (Gerald Flurry, The King of the South, 2003 version, p. 43.)

This is from the 2003 version of that booklet. This would mean Christ would return between 2013 and 2018 "or less." This was mentioned in a previous post. This prophecy has failed miserably. This proves that Gerald Flurry is most certainly a false prophet.

But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die. And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken? when a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him. (Deuteronomy 18:20-22.)

So we see that Gerald Flurry is a false prophet.

And so Flurry's booklet comes to an end.

So we see then that what appeared to be a denunciation of divorce and family break ups is actually a denunciation of evolution tied with the insistance that HWA's heretical teaching of the God Family is true.

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The God Family doctrine has been discussed elsewhere on this blog.

The God Family discusses how I first learned of this doctrine and how Roderick C. Meredith claim it was 'revealed' to HWA's group.

A Problem in the God Family Doctrine discusses how HWA taught that humanity was simply Plan B for God. According to HWA God originally intended to have Angels govern the Universe but Lucifer's rebellion forced God to create Humanity instead. This aspect of HWA's God Family doctrine is never discussed in Stephen Flurry's booklet.

Called to the Truth? Will all in the God kingdom be Equal? discusses how the COGs teach that those who become God Beings at the return of Christ will be superior in rank then all other people who become God Beings afterwards, even though all are supposedly as fully God as God is God. The COGs nevertheless teach that there will be ranks and that the God Family will be divided into an elite (the deified church) while the rest will be inferior in rank. This aspect of the God Family doctrine is never discussed in Stephen Flurry's booklet.

Reading PCG's Booklet, God is a Family reads through Stephen Flurry's booklet, God is a Family, showing how Stephen Flurry appeals to a commentary by a Sunday keeping Protestant scholar to "prove" the God Family doctrine, but in fact this Protestant scholar would never have accepted such a teaching. Stephen Flurry also spends half the booklet arguing that the Holy Spirit is only an impersonal force contrary to what the vast majority of Christians have taught and believed. In fact these have been many persons who have also used these argument, but they often also deny the divinity of Jesus Christ.