Part 2 of Reading PCG's That Prophet (Royal Vision)

Let us now read what Gerald Flurry wrote in the July-August 2000 issue of Royal Vision. It was in this issue of Royal Vision that Flurry proclaimed to PCG members the "new revelation" that he was "That Prophet", a personage he claims was written of in numerous part of the Bible and that he, Gerald Flurry, fulfills this role. Flurry first made this declaration in the ministerial conference of 1999. This Royal Vision article announced this declaration to PCG members in printed form. It contains six articles listed as different "Parts". You can read this magazine issue courtesy of PCG Information.

This is a continuation from Part 1 of this reading which covered Part 1 and Part 2 of this magazine issue.

Part 3

Here Flurry insinuates that Ezekiel 33:1-6 was a prophecy about Winston Churchill and World War II.

Ezekiel 33:1-6 may be talking directly about what happened in World War II: “Again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman …” (verses 1-2). God did bring the sword upon Israel to correct us, and a man named Winston Churchill came on the scene, and the people set him up as their watchman. God had a hand in it, but still, the people chose Churchill.(p. 13.)

Actually the people of Britain did not choose Churchill. Placing him in Cabinet and then picking him as Prime Minister was a decision made by the leaders of the national unity government in Britain at the time. For one who often complains that no one outside PCG knows history Flurry has gotten this fact completely wrong.

This is not about a Winston Churchill; this is a direct message from God to Israel! If they don’t hear God’s watchman, there is only invasion and captivity, worse than any ever known. (p. 14.)

Once again Flurry is talking about himself. Behold the arrogance of this man. He mentions Winston Churchill in order to claim he is just like him.

Yes, it is coming. It is coming speedily! God warns us to either submit to His government now or learn a big part of that lesson by being conquered by the Nazis. (pp. 14-15.)

HWA and his pathetic imitators have been shrilly claiming this to be the case since the 1930s without interruption, often vehemently asserting that the Great Tribulation and Christ's return are just a few years away. As seen elsewhere Flurry likes to portray events otherwise but that is the truth.

***

Once again Flurry shows his sick imagination in order to demonize the other COG groups.

God’s watchman prophesies against His shepherds who do this. The first book I wrote, the foundational publication of the Philadelphia Church of God, was Malachi’s Message, which is specifically aimed at warning the ministers, the shepherds! Laodicean ministers have DRIVEN God’s sheep away. Now the Church members are, as verse 5 describes, just spiritual meat for the demons. God’s Laodiceans have no watchman or prophet, and they are being ripped apart by Satan and his demons! (p. 15.)

Why does Flurry demonize the other COG groups all the time? Partly it is because Flurry knows that he had little standing within HWA's WCG. At the time he was just another minister. Aside from his assistant, John Amos, no other WCG minister joined Flurry's following. Flurry fears that PCG members will realize that his claim to be HWA's successor is actually quite weak compared to other WCG ministers who left Tkach's WCG. In response to this perceived threat Flurry constantly demonizes them in order to make PCG members scared from leaving any other COG group.

It also serves to "prove" to PCG members that he (Gerald Flurry) is the bearer of "new revelation" because it was in Malachi's Message that Flurry proclaimed that it was necessary to join PCG in order to be a Philadelphian and not a Laodicean. His demonization of the Laodiceans was the first "new revelation" and it reminds PCG members that he is the bearer of "new revelation", the sole legitimate successor to HWA.

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By no means does God’s watchman have an easy job. But how can he possibly fail if he does just what God commands him? “And thou, son of man, be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns be with thee, and thou dost dwell among scorpions: be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house” (verse 6). People will have strong words, but that’s okay, God says. Because I am supporting you, just step out and tell them what I say. Soon I will make them see you were carrying my message. (p. 16.)

While in other parts of the world Christians are viciously persecuted and even martyred for believing in Jesus Christ, over in Edmond, Oklahoma one Gerald Flurry is worried about some "strong words" that may be used again him.

***

On pages 17-18 Flurry quotes an article by HWA in the June 1961 issue of The Plain Truth in which he talks of how he trained Herman Hoeh how to write articles and doing this with Roderick Meredith and Richard David Armstrong. And then Flurry takes advantage of this to condemn the two surviving men for not submitting to Gerald Flurry and his PCG. Hoeh stayed within Tkach's WCG and Meredith left to start up his own COG group. 

The world of WCG's ministers was severely hierarchical. Flurry was a late comer compared to Hoeh and Meredith, only being ordained around 1973. They and every other senior WCG minister would have viewed as Flurry as far beneath themselves in the pecking order of WCG. There was no way they would have ever submitted themselves to Flurry. No wonder only one WCG minister, John Amos, chose to join Flurry's following.

This is probably one reason why Flurry demonizes the other COG groups so viciously and crudely. He fears that PCG members will leave his group when they see how unimportant he was within HWA's WCG and wonder why such a man should dare proclaim himself the sole heir to HWA's power and authority.

(Page 18 has a picture of the February 1962 issue of The Plain Truth.)

***

Flurry says Britain like a silly dove and will inevitably fall into Germany's clutches and be conquered.

Ephraim, or Britain has a "silly dove" foreign policy! No silly dove nation can endure in a world full of hawks and tigers! This is a strong warning to a once-mighty nation. How terrifyingly weak they have become. (p. 18.)

This was just about a year before 9/11. Shortly afterwards Britain sent armed forces into Afghanistan and Iraq. Clearly Flurry does not know what is going to happen. This is yet another false prophecy Gerald Flurry has made.

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Part 4

Here Flurry talks about how great HWA was and then says that he himself possesses the same ability to present "new revelation" from God.

Just look at all the truth God revealed to Mr. Armstrong during his ministry. I never looked upon him as just another man. I saw him as an individual who had something I didn’t have—God's special revelation for the world and God's Church. I know God revealed truth to him. It didn’t come from Mr. Armstrong. It came from God through Mr. Armstrong.

When God gives a man a charge, He also gives that man something extra, something no one else has. He gives that man His revelation to proclaim.

God has given me that same advantage He gave Mr. Armstrong. He has given me a wealth of revelation to proclaim—not because of anything I’ve done, but because He wants to give it to you and then have all of us deliver it to the world. God wants you to have what I have. He also wants you to submit to His loving government. That’s why He has given me so much revelation. (pp. 22-23.)

Part of submitting to "God's government" is paying Flurry's PCG three tithes and extra offerings. And that exploitative system is here labeled "loving".

***

Notice what this woman’s problem was above all. “Yet let no man strive, nor reprove another: for thy people are as they that strive with the priest” (Hosea 4:4). The people strive with the priest, or the one who administers God’s law and government. The Hebrew word for “priest” here denotes chief priest. The Laodiceans are not in God’s inner court today because they have rejected God’s chief ruler! That is the heart of the Laodicean problem. They will not follow a man as he follows Christ. (pp. 24-25.)

Finally Flurry begins to admit the truth: Flurry demonizes the Laodiceans because they are not in PCG paying him the three tithes and extra offerings. They are Laodicean because they are not in PCG.

"The Laodiceans are not in God’s inner court today" is simply PCG jargon for saying that the members of the other COG groups are not in PCG and PCG's leaders constantly say that not being in PCG is evidence of all kinds of spiritual failings and deficiencies. Not being in PCG is presented as a state of being not worthy of existence. This is what Lifton called the dispensing of existence and is one of the criteria for thought reform.

Also note how Gerald Flurry calls himself "God's chief ruler". He certainly does not have any lack of self esteem.

***

Insert

It is well known that Flurry says Malachi's Message is the Little Book. Flurry also says Malachi's Message is the Flying Scroll of Zechariah. He says this in an insert after Part 4 on pages 26-28.

Flurry says one must be continually thankful for the dogmas of HWA and Flurry. 

If we have a spiritual focus, we will be continually thanking God for His revealed prophecies. Mr. Armstrong often said our greatest sin was ingratitude. Are we spiritual enough to continually thank God for His revealed prophesies? (p. 28.)

Says an anti-Flurry (like an antichrist) is on scene now and likely to gain greater prominence. This is similar to what he wrote in his booklet, The Lion Has Roared.

Again this "new revelation" is simply an addition to what he said in Malachi's Message.

Flurry talks about PCG members measuring God's temple yet the Scripture he uses specifically says not to measure the outer court.

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Part 5

This part is entitled "The Elisha Work". This is yet another change from HWA's teachings because HWA did not teach that there would be an Elisha after him, as PCG Information shows. 

***

Flurry says HWA felt most in WCG did not get it.

Mr. Armstrong, the end-time Elijah, felt very alone toward the end of his life. He knew that most of his brethren didn't "get it." (p. 30.)

As shown in a previous post this is actually referring to HWA's Pentecost sermon in 1985 discussed a specific matter of his teaching, namely that WCG members are called to teach the rest of humanity into the God Family. He was talking about that.

And as for HWA feeling alone near the end of his life maybe he should have been a bit more reasonable towards those close to him and he might not have been in that situation. David Robinson was of the opinion that HWA never knew how to make a friend. His megalomania and sociopathic tendencies blinded him to true friendship.

***

No wonder God calls them his very elect, or elite. (p. 30.)

Flurry very often likes to tell his followers that they are the elite of the world because they are in PCG. He tells PCG members they are like God's precious jewels, far more valuable then the rest of humanity blinded from knowing that PCG in the one true church and that what Gerald Flurry says is true.

***

Flurry says that Elijah raised up three colleges. So did HWA. It is not mentioned that one of them was shut down under HWA's watch. (p. 31.)

***

Once again Flurry shows his sick imagination about the dire future he insists is just around the corner despite the many times HWA and his imitators have made false and inaccurate prophecies.

Elisha was given a vision of what this evil man [Hazael] would do to Israel. It was a prophecy that was not a part of the Bible at that time. Elisha saw clearly that this man would become king and burn towns, slay Israelites, dash children to death and rip apart pregnant women. ... Also, Elisha was prophesying what would happen in God’s Church during the Laodicean era. Is this vision real enough to make you weep? Can we vividly see our own peoples’ children being dashed to death and pregnant women ripped apart by the millions? How blazingly urgent this work is! Only PCG members will escape this unparalleled holocaust! (pp. 32-33.)

This is one reason why PCG members remain in it despite the problems there. They are indoctrinated to believe that unless they remain in PCG they will suffer their worst fears in the Great Tribulation. They are scared witless into staying in PCG.

***

In an insert Flurry condemns Meredith for saying that Christ did not directly guide HWA's WCG. This repeats what he said in his 1993 booklet, God's Family Government, which was made as his condemnation of the establishment of the Global Church of God as seen in a previous post. Flurry pounces on this statement to insist that Meredith has disqualified himself from "God's Church" and must not be listened to. In fact the group Meredith led was (and is) larger then PCG.

Part 6

We must be aware of the time the way Satan is. (p. 34.) 

 I thought the whole point of PCG's teachings is to not imitate Satan.

***

On page 34 Flurry says what he said in his Zephaniah booklet. That booklet was discussed in a previous post.

***

Flurry states that the end time Joshua (Tkach Sr.) died of cancer. Flurry then insinuates that WCG ministers might be doomed already to go to the Lake of Fire after Tkach Sr.'s death in 1995. (p. 35.)

***

Later Flurry repeats what he said in his booklet, The Prophet Joel. On pages 36-37 Flurry repeats what he said in The Prophet Joel booklet and says it speaks of him personally as "a teacher of righteousness". That booklet was discussed in a previous post.

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Page 38 calls upon PCG members to contribute money, change job if necessary, all should want greater responsibility in this "greatest work on Earth."

***

Flurry admits that some PCG members let because they thought it was wrong for PCG to produce pirated copies of HWA's writings.

A few people got focused on their personal understanding of the copyright law, became convinced we were wrong in printing Mystery of the Ages and left the Church. (p. 39.)

I had never heard of this before. They made a good decision to leave PCG. They are probably quite happy to leave behind the burdens of the many responsibilities PCG lay members are indoctrinated to endure.

***

Flurry has always used a lot of scare mongering about the Germans claiming they are just a few years from destroying America and Britain. His attitude towards Germans sound like blatantly bigotry and racism. Flurry would strenuously deny this but words like the following belie such denials. 

Nahum is a book about Germany, a nation which has been a continual curse upon mankind. Satan chose the Germans to inflict a stream of misery and destruction upon mankind. (p. 39.)

How is that not racist? How is that not bigoted? Imagine if he or anyone else said Americans are "a continual curse upon mankind" chosen by Satan "to inflict a stream of misery and destruction upon mankind." How would you feel? 

Every now and then Flurry will insist that PCG is not obsessed with Germans and that they do not hate Germans but are simply trying to warn them. We are asked to believe that somehow Flurry does not hate a people that he says here have "been a continual curse upon mankind" and have been chosen by Satan "to inflict a stream of misery and destruction upon mankind."

***

Flurry ends with a personal article from HWA from the August 1979 issue of Good News insisting that leaders as HWA and Flurry will never fall away from God's favor therefore one may rely upon such men to accurately fulfill God's will. (p. 40.)

Fairly often Flurry claims that he is God's Man and that it is necessary in order to be saved. So it may be seen that Flurry essentially claims to be religiously infallible. Sometimes Flurry says one must follow God's man, then he will say, but only as he follows Christ. But here Flurry says that God's man has never departed therefore it will not happen with him. So Flurry just pretended to say that one only needs to follow God's man so long as God's man follow Christ.

Talk about speaking with a forked tongue.

Incidentally that article of HWA's first appeared in the Worldwide News. John Tuit mentioned it in his book The Truth Shall Set You Free.

In the June 25th issue [of The Worldwide News], an article appeared called "What God Never Did-Never Will-Allow To Happen." After a lengthy rambling dissertation comparing himself to Moses, Armstrong ended the article by very nearly proclaiming himself a deity. He said, "Let me close with one thought. It is now a little late in life for me to turn to Satan's way, as so many others in high places have done. (pg 243 contained an organizational chart)

(pg 244) God never yet has let one through whom He STARTED a great project turn wrong-and he has never yet let such an appointed leader of his die until his job was FINISHED!"

One can only conclude from such a statement that Armstrong feels that he is immune to turning to Satan's way, in other words he can no longer sin, and that he does not expect to die until Christ returns. (John Tuit, The Truth Shall Set You Free, Chapter 17, pp. 242, 244, as presented on Banned by HWA.)

So seeing Flurry cite this article to say that "God's man" could never fall into sin shows once again that, contrary to his protestations to the contrary, following Flurry is the same as obeying God. Not following Flurry is the same as not following God. Flurry would strongly deny this is the case but his own words witness against him.

***

While quoting HWA's 1979 column Flurry shows the origin of the idea that half of the Laodiceans will be damned in the Lake of Fire. A fear mongering teaching Flurry seems to never tire of stating over and over again.

[HWA is quoted saying,] "Someone spread the false rumor that I have said these others were or would be Satan's churches.... The Laodicean Church will be characterized by spiritual lukewarmness--half of its membership (Matt. 25:1-13) will be shut out of the Kingdom of God." [Gerald Flurry then says,] One half will be shut out FOREVER! People we know will soon be forever shut out of the Kingdom of God to the tune of 50 percent! Is it important that we declare this message? (p. 40.)

And so we see where Gerald Flurry got his teaching that half of the Laodiceans will be damned into the Lake of Fire.

Reading this is the first time I have ever heard of HWA saying this. He says nothing of it in Mystery of the Ages. So it would seem that Gerald Flurry latched onto something HWA said only a few times and elevated it to a major doctrine constantly used to keep PCG members fearful of ever leaving.

Even though HWA only seems to have stated this a few times it was Gerald Flurry who chose to have his followers remember this doctrine constantly. This is also a change from HWA because he rarely mentioned such a thing.

***

Flurry ends it with these words.

How inspiring it is to think about that! God will carry on with His work and will really do everything He can to help that leader. His success has been 100 percent throughout the ages.

So it is very important that we all fully support that prophet. But at the same time deeply understand we are following GOD, not a man. (p. 40.)

Again support for Flurry is taught to be effectively the same as supporting God. Supporting Flurry is subtly redefined as supporting God. This is a common tactic used in highly controlling groups called "loading the language". Words and phrases are redefined so that they sound like one thing but actually mean something very different. Here is one reason why so many PCG members stay in PCG despite the many problems there.

***

Letters

And there are letters on page 41.

Some of them discuss an article by Gerald Flurry in the May-June 2000 issue of Royal Vision called Hannah's Vision. Very likely this article was incorporated into Gerald Flurry's booklet, The God Family Vision, which was first published in 2001. Parts of that article were also incorporated into Chapter 4 of Gerald Flurry's new book, The Former Prophets: How to Become a King.

Here's one letter from Fiji.

I've just finished reading the May/June issue of Royal Vision, and there is nothing to compare to it. It's wonderful. I've learned more about God and God's work since reading Royal Vision and the Trumpet. I've studied the Bible over 26 years and I thought I understood a little of the Scriptures. Now I find I know almost nothing. Thank God for someone who can tell me and show me the truth. Thank you for the really outstanding magazines.

The letter says "there is nothing to compare to it." Apparently this person is unaware of the hundreds of other COG groups that also teach similar doctrines that PCG teaches.

Sure Flurry's writing may be able to get you on a "spiritual high" but a lot of what he says is based on nonsense. Misinformation that is provably inaccurate and wrong.

British Israelism is untrue. As Silenced.co showed British Israelism is built on a foundation of sand. In fact DNA evidence refutes British Israelism.

There are no church eras.Bruce Renehan in his book Daughter of Babylon, proved that the church era teaching is nonsense.

Here is another letter.

Thank you for continuing the work of Mr. Armstrong. Almost daily we see his understanding proving to be correct. I was able to study his works for about eight years before he died. Satan sure had his advocates move in rapidly when Mr. Armstrong died.

"Almost daily we see his understanding proving to be correct." HWA taught in his last book Mystery of the Ages that Christ would return within twenty years (by 2005) at the most. (PCG has since deleted this statement and thus is not seen in their copies of that book.)

HWA did not anticipate the Soviet Union's collapse. He thought it would survive until a few years after Christ's return.

It is now fourteen years since this was published. Was HWA's understanding proving to be correct all that time?

Here's another one.

I enjoy reading your literature and can easily see that the quote in Revelation -- to prophesy again -- has been fully accomplished by this little PCG organization. This is certainly the most important work on this planet! I am truly encouraged by how well you follow in the footsteps of H. W. Armstrong, God's 20th-Century Elijah! 

So PCG is more important then the government that keeps social institutions maintained for your benefit? More important then charities that help out the unfortunate?

Also this person appears to be unaware that Gerald Flurry has made numerous doctrinal changes compared to what HWA taught which were presented to PCG members as "new revelation".

HWA never taught that the man of sin of II Thessalonians 2 was a man within WCG. Flurry does.  

HWA never taught that Iran was the King of the South. Flurry does.

HWA never taught that Prophets under the New Testament dispensation had the right to rule over lay members. Flurry does.

And there have been many other such changes. Flurry's PCG has even altered HWA's writings.

***

And so once again Flurry has tried to bedazzle his followers into thinking that he is the one man is contact with God. One can only be saved by following Flurry. To follow "God's man" is the same as following God.

It is very sad that so many cannot see that PCG's teachings are being used to make the followers loyal to PCG despite the many problems within in and to persuade them to hand over three tithes and extra offerings.