Thursday, April 2, 2015

PCG's Gerald Flurry Using Star Wars to Lure People Into PCG

So Gerald Flurry has recently released the following twelve page booklet, entitled "The Real Star Wars", which exploits the widespread affection and admiration for Star Wars to lure people into PCG so that more people can pay three tithes and extra to PCG for the rest of their lives.


By alluding to how angels are sometimes referred to as stars Flurry presents Armstrongism's dogmas concerning angels and demons as "the real star wars" in order to get more people to join PCG.
Most of you have heard about the science-fiction fantasy Star Wars movie series. But did you know that the Bible talks about a REAL star wars that is more astounding than any fiction? The real star wars have been going on for thousands of years, and whether you realize it or not, they are affecting your life. ...

This is not fantasy. This is REALITY. It is happening behind the scenes—but it is clearly depicted in your Bible if we do a little digging to see—and its end is imminent. ...

The Bible uses stars as symbols for angels. ...

There are also fallen stars. (Gerald Flurry, The Real Star Wars, 2015, p. 1.)
Parts of this booklet have been lifted from other writings by Gerald Flurry.

The first part of this booklet comes from Chapter 5 of Gerald Flurry's 2002 booklet, Ezekiel: The End-Time Prophet. Here Gerald Flurry recites the idea inherited from HWA that the King of Tyrus mentioned in Ezekiel 28 is, he says, actually referring to Satan's fall into sin.
In Ezekiel 28, there is a prophecy about “the king of Tyrus.” But this clearly is not speaking of a mortal man. In fact, this is referring to Lucifer, who became Satan. “Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold …” (Ezekiel 28:12-13). Lucifer was right there in Eden, the garden of God. (Gerald Flurry, Ezekiel: The End-Time Prophet, 2002, 2004, 2007, 2009, Chapter 5, pp. 40-41.)
In Ezekiel 28, there is a prophecy about “the king of Tyrus.” But this clearly is not speaking of a mortal man. In fact, this is referring to Lucifer, who became Satan. “Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God ; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold ...” (Ezekiel 28:12-13). Lucifer was right there in Eden, the garden of God. (Gerald Flurry, The Real Star Wars, 2015, p. 1.)
Other parts of this booklet are taken from Gerald Flurry's 2009 article, Satan's Power.
This prophecy was recorded some 2,500 years ago. For two and a half millennia, its meaning has been closed up and sealed. But we are living in the time of the end today, and God has unsealed this prophecy! He has revealed its meaning. (You can prove this from our free booklet Daniel—Unsealed at Last!) That is a gigantic miracle! What a thrill and a wonder to be able to understand this prophecy.  (Gerald Flurry, Satan's Power, February 2, 2009.)

This prophecy was recorded some 2,500 years ago. For 2½ millennia, its meaning has been closed up and sealed. But we are living in the time of the end today, and God has unsealed this prophecy! He has revealed its meaning. (You can prove this from our free booklet Daniel Unsealed at Last.) That is a gigantic miracle! What a thrill and a wonder to be able to understand this prophecy. (Gerald Flurry, The Real Star Wars, 2015, p. 5.)
This is not the first time Armstrongites have tried to use Star Wars to lure people into Armstrongism. Back in the October-November 1980 issue of The Plain Truth, when The Empire Strikes Back was released, Jeff Calkins wrote an article ("The Empire Strikes Back: What the Critics Didn't Tell You", pp. 32-38.) in which he crudely insisted that the Star Wars saga was just like Armstrongism's dogma that God will soon unseat Satan from controlling the world.

It does not matter how they try to pretty up PCG's teachings, it is still essentially the same as what HWA taught as far back as the 1930s and doomed to fail.

Many of the dire pronouncements Gerald Flurry make are based on the discredited dogma of British Israelism. As Silenced.co has shown British Israelism is built on a foundation of sand. In fact DNA evidence refutes British Israelism.

Gerald Flurry predicted that the Muslim Brotherhood would take over Egypt and turn it into an Islamist state like Iran. He never foresaw that they would be overthrown and suppressed in a military coup in 2013 with much loss of life.

Gerald Flurry claims to be the heir of Herbert W. Armstrong, who is hailed as the end-time Elijah by Flurry. But HWA made many false prophecies that simply did not happen. HWA even said Christ would return in 1975.

HWA and Flurry's words are vain which will fail to be fulfilled. But a lot of lay members will pay them money while the leaders of Armstrongism still live.

4 comments:

  1. This is nothing new -- United did this for the cover of the Good News about a decade ago.

    Well, you know, why not? The Star Wars genre was created by neo paganists, which isn't that far from PCG teachings.

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  2. This is too much! Not only will it fail to make PCG attractive, but it also kind of spoils and demeans Star Wars by association. Imagine Jedi children being forced to learn Irish tap dancing!

    BB

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  3. Oh, Byker Bob, that's terrible -- I hate Irish tap dancing and avoid Celtic Thunder at every turn!

    Now I won't be able to get the picture of that out of my head the whole weekend.

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  4. Black Ops Mikey,

    I was unaware of UCG doing that in the Good News magazine. Thank you for mentioning this.

    Byker Bob,

    You are right. Flurry exploiting Star Wars does demean it and its fans do not deserve that.

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