Overview of the July 2020 Issue of PCG's Trumpet

Around mid-May 2020 the PCG leadership released the July 2020 issue of their recruitment magazine, The Philadelphia Trumpet. Let's see what the PCG leadership had to say this time in the hope of getting more tithes paying converts.

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

This issue had a circulation of 246,078 issues.

Gerald Flurry has an article scare mongering that the European nations' responses to the Covid-19 pandemic will prepare the way for the creation of the future European Empire, the very empire that Armstrongites have constantly insisted since the 1930s will soon conquer the United States. 

At the end of this article is the following blurb advertising one of their recruitment booklets. 

Put the Trumpet to the test. Over 75 years of evidence proves biblical prophecies true. Compare recent events beside Bible prophecy. (p. 5.)

Since its founding in 1989 PCG has made many predictions that have simply turned into false prophecies.

Josué Michels has a side article scare mongering that the Roman Catholic Church is fated to seize control of the Protestant churches in Germany. Armstrongites have constantly presented this accusation to their followers against the Roman Catholic Church and yet it never happens.

Brad Macdonald has an article complaining that some people do not like President Trump. Since when has any US president been universally adored by everyone? That has never happened and never can happen within a democracy.

Jeremiah Jacques has an article criticizing China over the Covid-19 pandemic and trade issues.

Joel Hilliker has an article promoting Armstrongism's God family doctrine after talking about how one thinks about death. The founder of Armstrongism, Herbert Armstrong, in all likelihood plagiarized this doctrine from another source as he did with many other teachings. Many have suspected Herbert Armstrong's source of this doctrine was Mormonism. Another possible source is the early Watchtower Society back in the days of their first leader, Charles Taze Russell.

The Infographic complains that the death rate of Covid-19 is estimated at too high a figure. However Covid-19 is so contagiousness even if it had a death rate of less than 1% and not 3.4% it will still kill vast numbers of people and overwhelm the health care infrastructure of society. And that will also kill many other people unable to access healthcare because of the many people who got severely sick by Covid-19. We must be careful not to downplay how serious the Covid-19 pandemic truly is.

Joel Hilliker has an article that mentions Alexander Solzhenitsyn's detention within the Soviet Union's gulag system of labor camps. In this article Hilliker "assures" his readers that a wonderful future world will be created after humanity goes through a time of horrific horrors, namely a future war PCG and fellow Armstrongites call the Great Tribulation during which the United States will be conquered by a future European Empire. This future war is to culminate in (Armstrongism's interpretation of) Christ coming to Earth and ruling over the world for a thousand years of peace and happiness under an Armstrongite theocratic dictatorship.

Stephen Flurry has an article insisting that there should only be one Christian church. PCG's leaders make it clear elsewhere that they teach that PCG is the only "true" Christian church in all the world. He even mentions Roderick Meredith splitting away from the Global Church of God in 1998 in order to denigrate the other COGs as using systems of government he disagrees with. In reality most COGs practice an authoritarian style of governance similar to PCG's.  

WorldWatch discusses the United States upgrading their nuclear weapons in Germany; Germany sending soldiers to Libya to impose an arms embargo; Pope Francis calling for a universal basic income; Prime Minister Netanyahu getting an agreement to pursue annexation of part of the Palestinian West Bank as part of a new Israeli government (now on hold); a clash between Iranian and US ships; the US withdrawing from certain bases in Iraq; China once again staking their territorial claims in the South China Sea; the US State Department accusing China of testing zero yield nuclear weapons tests; and a claim that internet trolls from China are spreading misinformation regarding lockdown measures in the US.

SocietyWatch discusses an increase in consumer debt; changed personal habits caused by the Covid-19 pandemic; and a lower marriage rate among adults in the United Kingdom.

Stephen Flurry has an article calling upon readers to use their time wisely.

Andrew Müller has an article demonizing environmental activism as some sort of modern form of "paganism." This is vile name calling that falsely conflates concern about the environment with certain religions that happened to be prevalent in some parts of the world before the rise of Christianity.

And so we see that the PCG leadership continues with their attempts to attract more tithes paying converts even as the world faces the supreme crisis of the Covid-19 pandemic.