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Thursday, February 5, 2009

Flurry's Follies

I've been poking around Gavin's (from Ambassador Watch) old website. You can find it here. I was Googling for a bit of information about one Mr. Gerald Flurry. You may never have heard that name before. He usually goes by his title, "the end-time Elisha". Now you know who I'm referring to? Yeah, him! That's the guy! Well, Gavin, having done so very much foot work for us through the years, had everything I needed right there. It was all low-hanging fruit! I just walked in, scooped up all I could stomach, and I simply had to post about it and refresh this information in everyones' minds.
What Gavin did was assemble a group of quotes from the Ambassador Report. What I am going to do is borrow a few quotes from Gavin... to whet your appetite and hopefully get you reading the rest for yourself. They are incredibly telling!

"Malachi's Message is a new vision from a mighty angel. It's a NEW REVELATION - not something somebody already knew!
This new revelation is God's way of saying that we must give the little book a special importance and the majesty it deserves. Only then can we properly respond to the great Work of God - much of which revolves around the little book.
"
-Gerald Flurry, "Philadelphia Trumpet", Sept./Oct. 1992, p.8

Here we have a man, Gerald Flurry, who is claiming direct divine revelation from God (through an angelic representative). Let me repeat that for emphasis: Gerald Flurry is claiming that he spoke with an angel and received prophetic revelation from God!

Flurry (ie. Elisha) is bold in his claims about the authenticity and "majesty" of "Malachi's Message" (ie. the 'little book' of Revelation 10 & 'scroll' Ezekiel 3). Does that make him the Apostle John and Ezekiel as well? He is bold before man and God that this book is divinely inspired and accurate for prophecy.

"God will look to and use THIS MAN who is childlike before His word (Matt. 18:1-3). For example, this man will read God's revealed word in Malachi's Message and act on it out of godly fear! He KNOWS that book contains God's truth. He trembles and obeys."
-Gerald Flurry, "Philadelphia Trumpet", December 1993, p.20

We ought to obey God rather than men (ACTS 5: 29). I wonder if Mr. Flurry read as far as Matthew 18: 6?
At this point, I must remind you of Deuteronomy 18:

(DEU. 18: 20-22) 20 But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.’ 21 And if you say in your heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the LORD has not spoken?’— 22 when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.

Blasphemy? Ehhh, close, but probably not. Let's read a little further.

"There is a colossal reason why Christ moved us [the PCG] to print both these books ["Mystery of the Ages" and "United States and Britain In Prophecy" by Herbert Armstrong]. WITHOUT THEM WE CAN'T UNDERSTAND THE BIBLE OR GOD'S MASTER PLAN! That's how critical they are today!"
-Gerald Flurry, Co-Worker Letter, 1/21/97

The Ambassador Report paraphrases another of Flurry's comments this way:

"HWA's Mystery of the Ages and Flurry's Malachi's Message go together 'hand and glove'"
-"hand in glove" by Gerald Flurry, "Philadelphia Trumpet", April 1993, p.24

What Gerald Flurry is saying is absolutely positively no different whatsoever than what Joseph Smith of the Mormon faith claimed, that an angel delivered him a new book of the Bible. To follow the first act of Armstrongism where Herbert Armstrong stole doctrine from the Latter Day Saints church, Gerald Flurry now steals their ideas too.
If you haven't caught on yet, what Gerald Flurry is saying is that the "Mystery of the Ages", the "United States and Britain In Prophecy", and "Malachi's Message" are three new books of the Bible, without which no one can understand the rest of the Bible. If you will but read my posts on British-Israelism, you will see how these claims simply cannot be true. But the "Elisha" appears t have missed one!

"My book, The Incredible Human Potential, has appeared in bookstores all over the English-speaking world. It’s story too comprehensive to even begin to condense in this article.
Actually I feel with very deep conviction that I myself really did not author this book  — that the living Jesus Christ is its real author. I was merely like a stenographer writing it down. And with that understanding, I feel I may say that this is one of the most important — and most tremendously revealing — books since the Bible!"
-Herbert Armstrong, "Youth '86", Feb. 1986

So make that FOUR new books of the Bible between the two of them.
I find the next quote particularly disturbing. It goes very well with my earlier posts about "Following A Man"

"Of course, there are different groups of lukewarm and dead churches. But Mr. Armstrong ALWAYS PREACHED THAT GOD WORKS THROUGH ONLY ONE MAN AND ONE CHURCH! The rest are deceived....
"This leader I quoted earlier [Meredith] is teaching a satanic doctrine! IT IS VERY UNBIBLICAL TO SAY THERE ARE BRANCHES OF GOD'S TRUE CHURCH!....
"Where did I get this new revelation [Malachi's Message]? As Paul said, it was "NOT AFTER MAN." It came from God! Members of God's Church who can't see that revelation are BLIND!....
"A CHURCH COULD HOLD FAST TO EVERY DOCTRINE MR. ARMSTRONG TAUGHT AND STILL BE LAODICEAN-BLIND!"
-Gerald Flurry, "Philadelphia Trumpet", March 1993, p.28

Mr. Flurry takes it one step farther in saying that no matter what you do, no matter what you know, no matter anything whatsoever... if you do not follow him, then you are Spiritually blind. He has placed himself in the position and authority of Jesus Christ.
I am at this point ready to accept that what Mr. Flurry is doing here is blasphemous!

Finally, let's close up with this quote from the Ambassador Report from Issue 69, July 1998:

"[Randy] Schafer also doubts Flurry's claim that his book Malachi's Message was personally delivered to him by a great angel and that it was intended to be a part of the Book of Revelation. If that is the case, says Schafer, why then has Flurry revised the book a number of times since the angel originally gave it to him? Mike Okamura additionally points out that in Malachi's Message Flurry claims that WCG Pastor General Joseph Tkach Sr. is the prophetic "Joshua," but that "Joshua" is supposed to be alive at the second coming of Jesus Christ, while Tkach Sr. has been dead now for almost three years." [Better make that 13 years!]

Looks like Flurry has massaged the Message over time. Not only that, but we have our first false prophecy pointed out right there for you to read with your own eyes. Please re-read Deuteronomy 18:20-22, paying close attention to the end of verse 20. Gerald Flurry is a false prophet. I will disregard him completely. I suggest you do the very same. And may God have mercy on his soul.

Reader, please get yourself reacquainted with this eye-opening material which you can find on Gavin's site(s) and in other places so that you never forget it! For those still in Armstrongism, children of God, please allow Christ to lead you out of that sore yoke of bondage and into His New Covenant. ASK!

Gavin, There are three great mysteries in life: 1) How many licks does it take? 2) What on earth did I or anyone else ever see in Herbert Armstrong? and 3) How do you, Gavin, stomach reading so very much Armstrongist-related material? You, sir, should have literally exploded years ago. Perhaps you write from a crystalline fortress somewhere near the North Pole, and the earth's yellow sun has imbued you with an incredible constitution. At any rate, I would have given up the ghost while you carry on. Shine on you crazy diamond.

7 comments:

Mary Lane said...

>>>"There is a colossal reason why Christ moved us [the PCG] to print both these books ["Mystery of the Ages" and "United States and Britain In Prophecy" by Herbert Armstrong]. WITHOUT THEM WE CAN'T UNDERSTAND THE BIBLE OR GOD'S MASTER PLAN! That's how critical they are today!"<<<

Amazing hypocrisy! First of all, it limits God to writings of men, and second of all this material adds to the Word of God, which we are commanded not to do in Deut.4:2 and Rev.22:18-19.
I do remember a minister in the past WCG claiming that we would not need the Bible during the millenium, because it contained too many errors, and so we would be using Herbert Armstrong's materials to help us understand the truth. Talk about idolatry!

technosensei said...

Hi Mary! Thanks for commenting!

WOW! That's a story I'd never heard before. Thanks for sharing that. I'm floored!

I wonder if Flurry would counter you by claiming he didn't add anything... God did ... ..?

Anonymous said...

Of course he'd claim that xHWA. All false prophets rest on the premise of getting some sort of divine inspiration for their doctrines. It's much easier to say that because no one can "prove" they did not. Of course, they have trouble with the passage in Deuteronomy that you reference so they just change what they meant. They misunderstood the message God gave them. God decided to grant a few more months... It's the same game being played with different clothes on it.

When will we all learn to rest on God's word instead of man's understanding? (or maybe I should say man's doctrine spun and falsely attributed to God)

technosensei said...

Good point, Raccoon.

I would be mighty pleased if people would just do what Paul said and stick to the faith once and for all delivered. And I mean that as in "from the Bible", and not from any man's contrived utterances.

Although people like Gavin for instance have a lot of great material to help a person see Flurry and friends for who they really are, and obviously I recommend it, I have found that much of what HWA taught is disprovable from the very pages of the Bible. One need only want to see God's truth. It's a matter of realizing that in Armstrongism, what you're doing is proving what your minister says, not what the Bible says.

Armstrongism claims it gets its theology from the Bible, but that is demonstrably untrue or men like Flurry would never claim such things as 'you need my book (or HWA's book) to understand the Bible' or 'you need to follow me or your blind'.
BLIND? I'd have to become blind to follow him. What I am is sighted. That's precisely why I do NOT follow him.

Anonymous said...

"I do remember a minister in the past WCG claiming that we would not need the Bible during the millenium, because it contained too many errors, and so we would be using Herbert Armstrong's materials to help us understand the truth."

Fifty bucks says this was a Waterhouse special. I can spot one of Gerry's whoppers a mile away.

(No, I don't know whether that's a good thing, or not.)

technosensei said...

well, PH, you did win the Willie Dankenbring trivia contest.

technosensei said...

I would also remind everyone, since we're on the subject of this "Little Book" being the key to the bible, that Mr. Flurry goes around using the phrase "Key of David" quite often. He is apparently claiming to either be, or have, this key.

Isaiah 22: 22 is where you find the key of David mentioned. Read that verse. Then immediately go to Revelation 3: 7. Do you see who has the key?
It would seem we are to add "Jesus Christ" to the growing list of names Gerald "Elisha John Ezekiel" Flurry has annexed to himself.