Listening to PCG's Watching Jerusalem

PCG's leaders think that watching political events in the Holy Land will enable them to foresee when end time events will begin. Among the signs they watch for are the State of Israel moving away from the United States to go to a German led European entity and for the State of Israel, and in particular Jerusalem, to fall. Once they see such things happening supposedly the end time events such as the Great Tribulation and the flight to Petra will be near. Unfortunately watching political events in this turns Israeli Jews and Palestinians into fodder for speculation. Instead of trying to understand them and their political issues on its own terms these political issues and events are exploited to present PCG's leaders as being able to see the future. This is an unfortunate exploitation of these peoples.

As part of continuing to speculate if current events will reveal that PCG's tapestry of end time events will soon occur they have released a radio show entitled Watch Jerusalem on their radio station, KPCG, hosted by Brent Nagtegaal.

It is accompanied with Middle Eastern sounding music. Considering how often Arabs are negatively portrayed in PCG's writings this seems a bit discordant with how Arabs are often portrayed in PCG's writings. There are a few exceptions but those are just exceptions that prove the rule.

Episode 1: November 20.

Here Nagtegaal talks about the State of Israel trying to find more Dead Sea Scrolls. Also includes a description of an ancient, 2,000 year old scroll that contained Leviticus which was discovered using x-rays.

Episode 2: November 27.

Here Nagtegaal complains about Professor Israel Finkelstein and disagrees with his views. He complains that most Israeli archaeologists do not view archaeological matters the way he does. Nagtegaal insists that one particular layer of strata is to be identified with the time of David and Solomon. But Finkelstein dated this particular layer to a later time thus any artifacts found in that layer will be dated following Finkelstein's dating. Nagtegaal insists this is wrong. In contrast Dr. Eilat Mazar is presented favorably.

Episode 3: December 4.

Here Nagtegaal cites a news article from Lebanon to say that Iran is now an empire and is now more powerful than ever. It is claimed that the Bible reveals how Iran will expand its power and influence. (It does not.) Back in 1994 PCG's leader, Gerald Flurry, proclaimed that Iran would be the "King of the South." Consequently PCG's leaders have an incentive to vilify Iran as much as possible in order to present their leader as a man who can foresee the future. This broadcast continues that practice of theirs.

He also talks about a demonstration commemorating King Cyrus in Iran that was condemned by the authorities there.

***

One striking theme in PCG's description of Israeli Jews is that they seem surprised to learn that many Israeli Jews are secular and irreligious. That many Israeli Jews simply do not care about archaeological matters.

If PCG's leaders studied history they might learn that the nationalist movement to create a Jewish state was mainly started by secular Jews and that the religious authorities within the Jewish community were often quite hostile to the idea of creating a Jewish state saying that such a state contradicted their religion. Of course this later changed not least because of the catastrophe of Nazism.