Overview of the August 2018 Issue of PCG's Philadelphia Trumpet

PCG has released yet another issue of their recruitment magazine, The Philadelphia Trumpet. (August 2018.) Let us see what they have to say this time.

The editors of this issue are Gerald Flurry, Stephen Flurry, Joel Hilliker, Brad Macdonald, Richard Palmer, Jeremiah Jacques, Dennis Leap and Phillip Nice.

This issue has a circulation of 262,448 issues.

Gerald Flurry has a personal article praising King Hezekiah and Isaiah promoting the exhibit of seals possibly connected with them at PCG headquarters. It does not matter what PCG finds in the ground there PCG's reputation among the COGs and those formerlly associated with them will remain as abysmal as ever.

Richard Palmer has an article playing up recent tensions between the United States and Germany. PCG and Armstrongism in general teach that Germany is fated to launch a decisive war of military conquest against the United States which will end with America defeated and American people taken as slaves by the ascendant Germans.

Joel Hilliker has an article discussing the recent diplomatic outreach towards North Korea. Since Armstrongism says that a German led European entity will conquer the United States it seems reasonable to believe that this particular dogma will cause Armstrongites to not be so concerned with that nation even though they actually have nuclear weapons.

Andrew Müller the McCarthyite has an article bemoaning tolerance. How dare his fellow nationals should dare accept gays and women's rights. He also blames a certain German Jewish academic who had to flee Germany to escape the Nazis, namely Herbert Marcuse, for causing various attitudes to predominate in modern society. Marcuse is often cited in various conspiracy theories blaming the "Frankfurt School" for inventing the sexual revolution of the 1960s. That claim is nonsense. The sexual revolution was propelled from the numerous sectors of society

Jorg Mardian has an article about food. He says the food we have has gotten worse over the years. More doom and gloom from PCG's recruitment magazine.

Joel Hilliker also has an article insisting that despite the astounding progress the humanity has experienced in the last few centuries the world we live have actually gotten worse somehow. What won't PCG's recruiters say to make the world outside of PCG sound as awful as possible? If they admitted the world outside of PCG just might be worth living in what need would there be to join them?

The Infographic praises PCG's archeological excavations with Dr. Eilat Mazar. Previous excavations sponsored by HWA's organization are also mentioned even though PCG is a different organization and many who sent in the money that funded HWA's organization, including the excavations, are now demonized as "Laodiceans," some of whom have been shunned by PCG members as part of the infamous "no contact" policy.

Stephen Flurry has an article once again demonizing the Obama Administration's diplomatic agreement with Iran regarding nuclear power. He fumes that the Obama Administration lied to the American people. What about HWA's lies? He said that his followers did not need to visit doctors and so much harm and pain has been caused by his encouragement of neglecting such elementary necessities. HWA presented himself as a godly man but it is well known that back in the 1930s and the 1940s he committed dreadful and illegal acts in his personal life.

Gerlad Flurry also has an article promoting the Armstrongite doctrine of the "spirit in man."

Their correspondence course has an article encouraging reading to meditate on what PCG teaches.

WorldWatch discusses the new Italian government; German intelligence gaining legal right to spy on Germans; the ascension of a right wing party to power in Slovenia; Hezbollah and its allies winning the election in Lebanon; Israel participating in military exercises in Europe; scare mongering about an missile base near Shahrud; Russia's opening of the Crimean Bridge; scare mongering about China's arming itself; and bemoaning the Dominican Republic granting diplomatic recognition to China.

SocietyWatch discusses the mass incarceration within the United States; the increasing rate of suicides in the US; condemns the Boy Scouts of America for providing condoms at its conference to prevent acquiring sexually transmitted diseases; and condemns a proposal in California to ban "reparative therapy."

Joel Hilliker has an article encouragig people to make plans for their futures.

Richard Palmer has an article in which he alleges that moral relativism makes people unable to deal  with the child killing practiced among some native tribes in Amazonian region of Brazil.

This is why the Trumpet warns against tolerating evil, whether it is killing children or something more subtle. The West is also destroying its children. We are splitting and re-splitting their families, allowing them to engage in rampant drug use, permitting them to indulge in illicit sex, and encouraging them to experiment with transgenderism. (p. 35.)

It must be asked if Palmer has fully thought about the implications of his words. This implies that getting a divorce, using an illegal narcotic, having consensual sexual relations in a way contrary to PCG dogma and recognizing that gender dysphoria is a real condition is in some bizarre way morally equivalent with murdering a little two year old girl? What nonsense!

In the article above Palmer also praises a missionary couple for saving a two year old girl who had been ordered to be killed by tribal leaders. Palmer does not mention to his readers that his organization, PCG, teaches that it alone is the true church and all Christians outside of the organization are merely false Christians and heretics deceived by Satan.

There are letters. Here's a letter from Ohio.

A strange thing has been happening in my life. I have read the Scriptures, and I see that I have been misinformed. What is amazing is how wrong the Catholic religion is. This is the most informative thing I have read in my 62 years. I am on to something, and I want to stay on it!

Here's a letter from Illinois from a person newly convinced of having Jewish ancestry.

I thank God for your magazine. After I read Mr. Armstrong’s book The United States and Britain in Prophecy, it was like the whole world was opened up to me. And all this time I thought I was a Gentile!

It is saddening to see yet another person get confused by the unfounded doctrine of British Israelism. It is nonsense. The British and Americans are not descended from the Biblical Israelites. Genetic studies have shown that their genetics are so different that there could not have been any common ancestry between the Americans and the Jews in the way alleged by British Israelism. British Israelism is a false idea that confuses and misleads people.

(Incidentally Armstrongism makes a huge fuss of distinguishing between Jews and Israelites and insisting that they are, to this very day, separate peoples. But historically the remnants of the Kingdom of Israel united with the Jews of Judaea. While it seems likely some Israelites were absorbed into the surrounding people some retained their identity by uniting with the Jews in the southern Kingdom of Judah. Consequently both names are applied to the same people, namely the Jews. There is today no Israelite people distinct from the Jews. Armstrongism promotes that which is today a meaningless distinction.)

Here's a letter PCG's editors included that criticizes PCG's rightward political stance.

I realize you act more as propagandist in favor for the worst president ever to lead the U.S. I understand mostly because of the transfer of the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem! For the last two terms, you had one of the best presidents in Barack Obama. I am very surprised you support Donald Trump like that. Best regards.

Including such a letter makes it appear as though PCG is accepting of alternative opinions. Those who are on the receiving end of the infamous "no contact" policy know better.

And so we see that PCG's 1% has produced yet another issue of their recruitment magazine to try and get more tithe paying converts and keep their followers loyal to the organization. People who may happen to encourter this recruitment magazine without being familiar of the organization behind it deserve to know that their is no need to fear their dire predictions of gloom and doom. Armstrongites have continuously said such things since the 1930s and yet in all that time their predictions have failed to occur. HWA even taught from 1953 onwards that Christ would return in 1975. They are but false prophets. There is no need to fear their predictions.