In this article Gerald Flurry discusses how a journalist made an article about PCG in 1994.
Back in 1994, a local newspaper published an article about the Philadelphia Church of God. The author titled the article, “Is It a Cult or ‘God’s Church’?” One subhead was about our unorthodox beliefs—as if that is bad.What sort of beliefs was the journalist talking about? Flurry gives a slight indication later in the article.
Webster’s Dictionary describes a cult as “a group with unorthodox beliefs.”Here Flurry subtly redefines a cult as simply "a group with unorthodox beliefs" in order to minimize the fact that the word cult is often used upon groups which perpetuates oppressive practices upon its members.
So what did the reporter do to cause such offense?
The reporter had this to say in his article: “During the mid-1950s, he [Mr. Armstrong] published a pamphlet entitled, ‘1975 in Prophecy.’ It warned of a worldwide nuclear war in 1972 and Christ’s return three years later. … When the world didn’t end on schedule, Armstrong withdrew his pamphlet from circulation.” I was asked about this statement before the article was published. I told the reporter that not one of Mr. Armstrong’s critics could prove that statement about the book and they never have over the years! That is because Mr. Armstrong never said those events would occur on those dates. There was only speculation that those events could happen in that time period. I took the time to explain this in detail. The reporter still wrote the same statement without proof. And so the error is perpetuated without excuse! But reporters read such statements and often believe them because there are several critics making these claims. If people hear a statement frequently enough, they often believe it.Is it not amazing how Gerald Flurry can say such things?
In fact HWA embraced the idea that the Great Tribulation would begin in 1972 and that Christ would return in 1975.
However HWA never talked about the spurious reasoning behind dating Christ's return in 1975 in his booklet, 1975 in Prophecy. The dating is, however, discussed in other booklets such as Herman Hoeh's highly inaccurate booklet, A True History of the True Church.
These facts are explained in greater detail in the previous post, Why 1975?
It may be helpful to check Herbert Armstrong's Prophetic Record over at The Painful Truth.
ReplyDeleteHow can Gerald Flurry say such things?
I think the answer lies in the fact that he is a liar.
If HWA never intended those dates to be real (so to speak), then he was either a very poor communicator, or possessed lousy management skills. Why? Because his entire church firmly believed in those dates right up until they failed. So far as the old story about some of the younger ministers becoming over-enthusiastic and taking things further than HWA had intended goes, we're talking about a micro-manager here who immediately knew about and blasted church members' stainless steel cookware parties during which it was stated that aluminum cookware leached some of its metals into food.
ReplyDeleteThen, there were the three mathematical equations which we were taught at Ambassador College "proving" that 1972-75 were the dates. Quite honestly, Flurry was attending AC as one of the older married students at that time, and might have even been sitting in that same Bible class for that particular lecture with the rest of us. Clearly he is stunned that an investigative reporter wouldn't automatically accept 1970s vintage public relations backpedaling as being truth.
BB