Overview of the May-June 2017 Issue of PCG's Philadelphia Trumpet

PCG has released another issue of their recruitment magazine (May-June 2017) to attempt to gain more triple tithes paying converts. Back in 2012 one of PCG's booklets boasted that PCG had an income of about $19.5 million. Even as early as 1996 PCG boasted of enjoying more than $5 million in annual income. Recently PCG has even bought its own plane.

Let's take a look.

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

This issue has a circulation of 263,551. April's circulation was 267,569. March's circulation was 271,949. February's circulation was 273,591. January's circulation was 267,992. November-December was 277,131. October was 280,116. September was 282,121.

Intriguingly several articles contain quotations from their leader, Gerald Flurry. MacDonald's article has one on page 6. Palmer's article has two quotes on page 32. Jacques' article about race relations has one on page 17. Nagtegaal's article has three quotes on pages 20, 21 and 36. Jacques' article about Asian politics has one on page 25. WorldWatch has one on page 29.

Gerald Flurry has a personal article denouncing the German Holy Roman Empire as the most frightening and terrible thing.

You are going to see that crown [of Charlemagne] take on more than just symbolic meaning. That empire is prophesied to rise again! It is ready to burst on the world scene shortly—perhaps even in 2017! (p. 1.)

He mentions that Mein Kampf has begun to be published in Germany and has sold 85,000 copies but he does not mention that this occurred because its copyright expired (p. 2).

Brad MacDonald has an article denouncing calls for the British public to carry on and live normal lives after the mass murder in Westminster on March 22, 2017 in which five innocent people were murdered by sympathizer of ISIL.

Truth is, this contemporary interpretation of “keep calm and carry on” is destructive. ... 

In some respects, the calmness was admirable. But it exposed profound passivity and apathy. One would have expected an attack of this magnitude and the publicity to arouse greater indignation, to provoke much more reflection and self-evaluation. ... 

This, sadly, is the state of Britain (and America) today: These nations wish to be humbugged! In Britain, neither the leaders nor the public have the will to discuss the truth about Islamist terrorism, and certainly not to take serious actions to confront radical Islam. The U.S. has the same willful blindness. ... rather than using each crisis as an opportunity to reflect, to ask some searching questions and then to take meaningful actions that will prevent the crisis from happening again, these nations choose to keep calm and carry on. (pp. 4-5.)

MacDonald casts suspicion upon those who were acquainted with the murderer even though he is no position to investigate that issue.

Why didn’t [the murderer]’s “moderate” friends and acquaintances inform the authorities about him? (p. 5.)

After the mass murder twelve people were arrested in connection with it and by April 1 all had been released without charge.

MacDonald insists that multiculturalism has failed.

Instead of encouraging her people to carry on as normal, Prime Minister May ought to have been bolder.... Braving the accusations “war monger” and Islamophobe, the prime minister should have stated the obvious—radical Islam has burrowed deep into Britain. That it is a threat to the nation, to its institutions, culture and communities. That multiculturalism has failed. That Britain, if it is ever to truly solve this issue, will have to take meaningful actions on a large scale. (p. 6.)

To its shame PCG is Islamophobic and has a long history of scare mongering about Muslims in general. (See PCG's Demonization of Muslims: Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.)

Richard Palmer has an article insisting that mainstream political parties in Europe are shifting to the right to counter the rise of right wing populist parties citing the Dutch elections.

Andrew Müller has an article denouncing evolution as leading to immorality and hopelessness.

Joel Hilliker has an article about how men are to behave and gain respect as being a man.

Jeremiah Jacques has an article about one Daryl Davis, an African American man whose decision to talk to a Ku Klux Klan member to learn about racism led to some rather unexpected results.

The Infographic lists twelve prophecies to watch insisting that PCG's leaders can foresee future events. Here are some of these predictions.

10: VIOLENCE WILL ERUPT WITHIN U.S. CITIES
The moral breakdown of American society will culminate in large-scale looting, rioting, violence and murder in America’s most densely populated areas. (p. 19.)

This is an allusion to PCG's false prophecy of "race war," a racist teaching which claims that African Americans will launch a wave of riots against the white majority. Such fears are nonsensical and when directed at one specific race such as African Americans such an idea is racist.

12: U.S. ECONOMY WILL COLLAPSE
The American monetary system will crash, draining its superpower status and leaving it vulnerable. (p. 19.)

The United States has the greatest military power the world has ever seen and the federal debt is not at present a danger to US stability.

Brent Nagtegaal has an article scare mongering that Iran will disrupt maritime trade using the Houthis in Yemen. Various attacks by Houthi militiamen on the sea are mentioned, some of which resulting in fatalities. There is no talk about the severe humanitarian crisis afflicting the people of Yemen on the land because of the cataclysmic civil war that has raged since 2014 between the internationally recognized government and the Houthis with the terrorists and murderers of Al Qaeda's arm in Yemen also seizing territory elsewhere and fighting the other sides. It is also left unmentioned that the Houthis' enemies control the skies and have bombarded Houthi held territory from the air since March 2015.

In this article Nagtegaal mentions that Flurry is telling his followers that Iran will soon "push the world into an all-out world war."

On February 3, in a letter to supporters of the Trumpet and other Philadelphia Church of God projects, Mr. Flurry wrote that the aggressive king of the south is about to push the world into an all-out world war. The increasingly violent actions by Iran and its proxies in the Red Sea are one part of that push; a push that will ultimately succumb to a violent and forceful counterstrike by a superior force from the north. (p. 36.)

How terrible it is that Gerald Flurry is scaring his followers like this. There is no need to fear his dire and futile predictions. He is but a false prophet.

Jeremiah Jacques also has an article scare mongering that various Asian nations such as the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam are turning towards China and allegedly moving away from close relations with the United States.

The "Bible study" article insists that (PCG's) God wants the reader to listen to the Bible. However PCG's leaders insist that only they properly understand the Bible consequently reverence for the Bible is twisted into a prop to back up PCG's claim to be the only ones who understand the Bible properly.

SocietyWatch mentions

• that the European Union has approved the creation of a military command; 

• that China is now Germany's leading trade partner instead of the United States; 

• that Hamas has produced a new charter which endorses the creation of a Palestinian state on the 1967 lines and breaks away from the Muslim Brotherhood; 

• that Japan is to send the battleship, Izumo, on a three month cruise into the disputed South China Sea; 

• that there is speculation in Israel that Iran may acquire nuclear weapons from North Korea; 

• that Russia has adsorbed the armed forces of South Ossetia, a province of Georgia which had seceded in 1992 and since then has been de facto independent under Russian protection; 

• that intelligence stated that Russian operatives plotted to assassinate the Prime Minister of Montenegro on October 16, 2016 but were stopped just hours before implementation; 

• and South African President Zuma's endorsement of the possibility of forced confiscation of white owned farmland. Back in 1913 most farmland in South Africa was forcibly confiscated and handed over to whites.

SocietyWatch mentions

• that judges blacked President Trump's order to stop immigration from seven countries which is condemned by PCG's writers as "a dangerous act of judicial overreach" and "judicial activism"(p. 31,); 

• that the Heritage Foundation has ranked the United States' as falling to seventeenth instead of sixth back when Obama assumed the presidency; 

• and that Mexico is still enduring a cataclysmic wave of drug related violence citing the murder of three Mexican police officers abducted from Veracruz principality in January 2017. 

Stephen Flurry has a small article calling upon readers to rekindle their first love in their marriages.

Andrew Müller also has a small article denouncing the scandal of some members of the US Marine Corps distributing nude photos of their female colleagues acquired without their permission. This foul exploitation of women is mentioned in order to condemn sexual conduct contrary to PCG dogma.

The back page features advertising for a booklet by Joel Hilliker entitled Biblical Manhood.

There are also letters (p. 34). Here's one letter commenting on the difficulty of maintaining trade barriers.

I repair bicycles and maintain a couple of expensive road bikes.... The tires I prefer are Continentals—made in Germany. They are already expensive at approximately $75 each. A 35 percent tariff would put them out of reach cost-wise. I can’t imagine why anyone would believe an America-first policy on trade would help us. We depend far too much on the rest of the world for supplies.

Such trade barriers would also invite the possibility of retaliatory tariffs.

Here's one letter from a person worried that President Trump has not dealt with "left-liberal control of education."

President Trump, with a $20 trillion debt to deal with, will soon have a funding crisis and possible government shutdown.... He already looks like he is weak, as per this analysis, in not dealing with left-liberal control of education.

The federal debt is not quite as much of a pressing matter as this person seems to think.

Here's one letter from a person who condemns those who look after undocumented immigrants as a "pro-illegal lobby."

There’s a video on YouTube where an undercover reporter asks pro-illegal immigrant protesters if they are willing to put up an illegal immigrant in their own home.... They all replied no. The pro-illegal lobby is so generous with the money of other people and their endangered lives.

No one is illegal. A person may break certain laws but he or she should never be called illegal as though the individual him or herself is somehow illegal. Furthermore such persons are unable to vote consequently politicians have little incentive to be nice to them but some of them can mobilize against them without fear of these undocumented immigrants voting against them. Such persons are easy targets for political grandstanding.

Here's one letter from Michigan from a person who tries to spread the word about what PCG's leaders say in their recruitment magazine.

Your magazine the Trumpet honestly proves so much. I am just astonished. There were some things I didn’t believe, but when I looked them up they are true. All I can say is thank you very much. It is very eye-opening. I am trying so hard to spread the word but there are so many people that get upset when you do that.

One may hope that this person will realize what this organization actually is and cease such talk.

Here's one letter from South Carolina from a person who acquired PCG's recruitment magazine from a doctor's office and is now reading one of HWA's books and advising other people to take a look at their writings.

I thank God every day for that church out there. I just finished The King of the South and now I am reading The Incredible Human Potential. You all are a blessing to me. I got the Philadelphia Trumpet magazine from the doctor’s office. I asked him if I could have it and he said yes. I had never heard of you before but I have spread the word around this area as much as I can, giving people your address and phone number, because I think you people are amazing!

I would strongly advice a person in this position to give no heed to what they say. God is not with PCG. They do not know what will happen in the future.

Here's one letter from Alabama from a person who praising PCG's recruitment magazine for "exposing the corruption in our government" in all likelihood having no awareness of the problems within PCG.

I had canceled your magazine, but I changed my mind. I don’t agree with everything that you say, but you are saying things about the government and the world we live in and I need to know what’s going on. You are opening the eyes of people. Our country is in bad shape. Thank God we have a magazine like yours that is exposing the corruption in our government.

And so we see that PCG had produced yet another issue of their recruitment magazine to attempt to gain new tithes paying recruits and keep their followers mesmerized into thinking that PCG's leaders can see the future.

However since its founding in 1989 PCG has made at least 52 failed predictions. Getting a British columnist to talk at their headquarters cannot change that fact. Clearly PCG's leaders are but false prophets. There is no need to fear their dire proclamations about the future. They cannot see the future.