Around early August 2020 the PCG leadership released the September 2020 issue of their recruitment magazine, The Philadelphia Trumpet. While many Americans die every day because of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, including more police officers than any other cause of death, somehow in this issue the ongoing pandemic does not get its own article. The epidemic is mentioned here and there within this issue but the epidemic itself does not get its own article in this issue.
This issue had a circulation of 247,833 issues.
Gerald Flurry has an article blaming President Obama for the Trump-Russia scandal. He accuses Obama of helping to frame Lieutenant General Flynn. He says Obama had a feud against Lieutenant General Flynn because of his opposition to the JCPOA agreement with Iran.
Here is Flurry showing the world how much he despises President Obama. He even nonsensically declares that Obama "wants to destroy everything good in America" which is a truly bizarre and unhinged statement. (Please note: In the paragraph below "Israel" refers to America. This is part of PCG's jargon.)
The Iranians may not know that the Americans are literal descendants of ancient Israel, but they do label America the “Great Satan” and the Jewish state the “Little Satan.” They really want to blot these nations out! And through his Iran nuclear deal, Barack Obama was helping them accomplish this goal! He was implying, You take care of the Jews and we’ll take care of America. We’ll “blot out the name of Israel from under heaven” by transforming America into a socialist state our founders wouldn’t recognize. He wants to destroy everything good in America and to fundamentally change the nation into a Marxist dictatorship. Spiritually, he wants to wipe out the faith of Israel—just like the Iranian mullahs want to wipe Israel off the map!
This is what [a certain journalist] doesn’t understand. Obama decided to “choose the Islamic Republic as a partner” and to use “tactics typically employed by Third World police states” because he wants to blot out both the Jewish state and America! He also expressed hatred for Britain. Like the ancient Seleucid King Antiochus (Daniel 8:24), he is empowered by the devil to destroy the people of Israel through flattery and deceits that lead to violence.
It takes faith to believe what God says in 2 Kings 14:26-27. If God did not intervene to save America “by the hand” of Donald Trump, then America’s republic would have been blotted out—and Iran’s theocracy would probably have an atomic weapon!
Flurry then tries to take the sting out of his previous words by saying he does not blame Obama for wanting "to destroy everything good in America." He blames Satan, thus presenting Obama as a tool of Satan.
We must recognize that the real enemy is not Barack Obama. ... The real culprit behind his efforts to “blot out Israel” is not a man! I am not blaming him—I am blaming Satan!
Richard Palmer has an article that reverently recalls the British Empire's role in banning slavery in order to condemn protesters calling for statues associated with racial injustice to be removed.
Andrew Müller has an article scare mongering that America is on the verge of a "second civil war." In the current political situation in America this is a fear that almost exclusively exists within the political right.
Jeremiah Jacques has an article discussing how President Quezon of the Philippines helped to save 1,300 Jews in Germany from Nazi persecution in 1938-1941. One wonders why the PCG leadership do not call upon the US government to accept more refugees today.
Brad Macdonald has an article promoting British Israelism as the "reason" why America and Britain happen to have been so mighty and powerful from 1800 onward.
The Infographic serves to reinforce Macdonald's article. In PCG's spin of British Israelism it is claimed that (PCG's) God miraculously granted much riches and power to America and Britain from 1800 onward because it was 2,520 years after the northern Kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Assyrians. The other Armstrongite COG also teach this idea. The Americans and British people at the time would not have noticed any such thing.
A major reason why Britain became the most successful colonial power was because of their victories against France in the Seven Years' War (1756-1763).
Also in 1800 Britain was engaged in a desperate and most severe war against France which would rage until 1815. Many British soldiers made the ultimate sacrifice. The British soldiers who served would not have noticed any miraculous change in fortune for their nation from 1800 onward.
One negative consequence of Britain's severe struggle against France was that the British adopted a policy of forcibly conscripting people at sea to fight for the British Navy. Many sea faring Americans lived in severe fear of being, essentially, kidnapped by the British Navy. This would later lead to Britain and America going to war with each other in the War of 1812. None of them noticed that Britain and America had suddenly gained a miraculous change in fortunes for their nations.
This British Israelite dogma that America and Britain were divinely restrained from gaining great wealth and power from about 720 BC until 1800 is simply not true. It is a idea some today tell ourselves and they project this idea onto the past.
Joel Hilliker has an article commemorating 9/11. It is mentioned that PCG's leader, Gerald Flurry, on May 5, 2001 had proclaimed that humanity had entered its "last hour." Nineteen years later PCG is still waiting for the "last hour" to end. What is left unmentioned is that Gerald Flurry makes these dire proclamations every now and then. For instance back in 2008 Gerald Flurry had proclaimed that America had passed "the point of no return" as noted in #33 here. So we been apparently stuck beyond this "point of no return" for about twelve years now. PCG Information also has some intriguing information about this "last hour" dogma. (A previous version of Hilliker's article was discussed in a previous post.)
Andrew Müller has an article condemning estimates of the age of the universe and the Earth because they contradict PCG dogma.
Herbert Armstrong's Autobiography is cited to say that evolution is false and to present Herbert Armstrong as being knowledgeable of science even though he never went to college.
WorldWatch discusses the controversy regarding alleged Russian bounties paid to the Taliban to kill US soldiers which is presented as a partisan attack on PCG's beloved President Trump; added US sanctions against the Assad regime in Syria; certain explosions in Iran; Germany sending financial aid to companies involved in the arms industry; the US withdrawing troops from Germany; the US sending in three aircraft carriers into the South China Sea to demonstrate their opposition to China's claim to it; Germany gaining the EU presidency on July 1, 2020; Russia adopting amendments to their constitution which would allow Vladimir Putin to remain as President as late as 2036; the reduction of protests in Hong Kong after the enactment of the Law of the People's Republic of China on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region on June 30, 2020; and Japan choosing not to purchase a certain American air defense system.
SocietyWatch discusses young Americans being less religious; scare mongers that crime has increased because of protests against police brutality; scare mongers that a third of Americans think civil war is about to occur even though it is mainly the political right that chosen to be fixated on this inflammatory topic; and the former Prince Harry talking about racism in Britain.
The letters section contain a letter from South Africa.
I just want to thank the Philadelphia Church of God and the Trumpet. I don't know if you realize how much you change people's lives for the good in teaching us about supreme Lord God Almighty and our Lord Jesus Christ. I'm a changed person because of your literature, and I'm grateful and thank you so much. Lord God Almighty bless you. (p. 34.)
Stephen Flurry has an article insisting that Satan is the cause of the current problems. Not Covid-19 or police brutality. While stating this he also claims that restrictions designed to slow down the spread of Covid-19 and save are "self-destructive" and "unprecedented" even though quarantining people to stop the spread of diseases has been for thousands of years.
This world is changing dramatically—and fast. A powerful spirit influence that crosses borders, classes and ideologies changed the world with unprecedented, self-destructive coronavirus restrictions, then with the riots and outright assault on American and British history, culture and the last remnants of biblical principles. This spirit of hate is inspired by Satan the devil.
Richard Palmer has an article in which he insists PCG's dogmas make sense of the world.
Here is Palmer making the hysterical claim that certain economically deprived Americans dream of destroying their nation somehow. So often PCG say they love America and yet they are willing to vilify "the average poor person in America" in such a hysterical and nonsensical manner.
For years, the Trumpet has focused on the spiritual causes of world events. We have said that there is a real, spirit world and a real devil. We have said that God has worked out a specific plan for a specific purpose, using nations like Britain and America, and that Satan has tried to destroy that plan and those nations. How else do you explain the extremes we’re seeing right now? ... the average poor person in America has air conditioning and a smartphone—and more than likely wants to destroy his own nation!
Later Palmer insists to his readers that "[t]here is no catch" to PCG's offer of their writings to their readers.
You can read the whole book online, but I encourage you to request your own free print copy. We will mail it to you, just about anywhere you might be in the world, with no charge for postage, packaging, handling or any other hidden costs. Your name and address stay private. And we won’t contact you for any follow-up. There is no catch. We are simply a group of people who understand that this is the only source of hope and understanding that there is. We know God provides the answers, the hope, and the means to get it out there: We want to share it with as many people as possible. (p. 35.)
A lifetime of tithes. The goal of this magazine is to gain more members for PCG. One of the requirements of PCG membership is to pay tithes to them. That is how PCG got an income of about $19.5 million in 2012. That is the catch.
No wonder the PCG leadership devote so much time and resources to producing their recruitment magazine. But there is no need to give heed to their dire proclamations of the future. They have made many predictions of the future that have failed miserably. They do not know the future. They are but false prophets.
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