1993 PCG Article from Gerald Flurry

Recently PCG has posted on their website an article Gerald Flurry made in 1993. It was originally written in The Philadelphia Trumpet.

Here Flurry asserts that PCG is just like Elisha.

Herbert W. Armstrong was a type of Elijah. And he followed Elijah’s example and the work was very successful (Matthew 17:10-11; Malachi 4:5-6). The Philadelphia Church of God (PCG) today is a type of the work Elisha did anciently. The PCG tries very hard to follow the works of Elijah, Elisha and Mr. Armstrong, and we succeed accordingly.

Just forget that PCG changes HWA's writings at will. Gerald Flurry's PCG has changed Mystery of the Ages, The Proof of the Bible and Who or What is the Prophetic Beast? There may very well be more.

Later in the article Flurry sees great meaning in the number twelve and use it to assert that PCG is now the one, true church. This is a tactic often used within Armstrongism to make people falsely think some sort of supernatural power is behind Armstrongism.

Elisha received the mantle of authority. He was to minister to the 7,000. There were 12 yoke of oxen with Elisha. The PCG began with 12 members. Twelve is the number of new institutional beginnings.

Elisha was a farmer plowing the field when the mantle was passed. Elijah didn’t go to some scholarly seminary to find a replacement!

One Worldwide Church of God evangelist didn’t think God would use Gerald Flurry as the physical leader to “hold fast” to His truth. He said if God chose another leader it would be from Pasadena. Who knows the kind of man God will choose for a job and from where he will come? Only God knows.

Of course the reason Flurry belittles education here is he is trying to make PCG members forget that Flurry was just another WCG minister while HWA was alive. He was only ordained in 1973. Many ministers were senior to him and would never look up to him. That is the real reason why, aside from John Amos, no WCG minister joined Flurry's new group. They viewed him as beneath themselves in the severely hierarchical pecking order among WCG's ministers.

Elijah was discouraged and thought he was all alone. Near the end of his life, Mr. Armstrong said to the WCG members, “I believe most of you just don’t get it!” He felt most of the Church members were not with him spiritually. He, like Elijah, felt somewhat alone.

Flurry is referring to HWA's Pentecost 1985 sermon. HWA was actually criticizing how (in his opinion) many WCG members and even ministers improperly misunderstood why the vast majority of humanity are not called to believe in HWA's teachings until after the Millenium.

The way Flurry presents this sermon here is very misleading. This article reveals he was telling this distorted story as early as 1993.

The Elijah work today is comprised of people who understand what Mr. Armstrong’s role was! The great sin of the Laodicean ministers is their rebellion against the Elijah office!

When prospective members come to the PCG, the first and perhaps most important question we ask them is, “Do you believe Mr. Armstrong fulfilled the role of the end-time Elijah?” If they don’t believe this then we don’t invite them. This is not done maliciously. We simply know they don’t have the understanding to be a part of the Elijah work.

This assertion was somewhat notorious among Armstrongites. The self appointed, unordained, false prophet Bob Thiel mentioned this quote in his article about PCG back when he was an apologist for LCG.

Flurry glorifies HWA to make himself stand out compared to Tkach's WCG which was in the process of changing into a (for the most part) a mainstream evangelical church.

Mr. Armstrong said many times that he was the father of us all either directly or indirectly! All of us were brought into God’s Work through his teachings. Today the WCG is destroying the very teachings that brought their members into the Church!

That doesn’t mean Mr. Armstrong was or is to be called “father.” It is not a title. It’s just a spiritual fact. It just means that God used him to help convert the rest of us. Elijah and Paul both understood this truth. However, neither Elijah nor Paul were addressed as “father.” That is forbidden by God’s law (Matthew 23:9). But God still used them as a “father figure” to call people into His truth.

Elijah, Paul and Mr. Armstrong were all used by God to raise up His Work. Then all the people came into the truth through them directly or indirectly. Only in that sense are they “fathers.”

Flurry ends this article by promising great power and glory awaits one if he or she joins PCG.

We are going to see the end of Satan’s great rebellion. We have seen how this great false religion has even made heavy inroads into God’s Laodicean Church today. Soon this satanic religion will be history.

Do you know deeply where the Elijah work is today? God praised a great woman for perceiving that God was doing His Work through Elisha (2 Kings 4:8-10).

Those who perceive where God’s Elijah work is today and support it are going to be rewarded with a headquarters job with God for all eternity! If we support God and His Work we can’t lose. What a glorious opportunity God has given us!

So just keep sending those three tithes to make PCG's income even bigger. In 2012 PCG made $19.5 million. They want even more.