by
Keith Hunt
Gerald Flurry has written a book, it is called Malachi's Message.
His statement at the beginning is this:
QUOTE:
In her book Another Gospel, Ruth Tucker congratulated Joseph W.
Tkach for "the direction" he is headed in the Worldwide Church of
God - away from many of the teachings of the late Herbert W.
Armstrong.
"It's clear that the Worldwide Church of God has changed its
thinking about Herbert W. Armstrong." (From a religious radio
interview on "Truths That Transform.")
Vast changes have been made in the Worldwide Church of God since
Herbert W. Armstrong died. Even other religions can clearly see
that the Worldwide Church of God "has changed its thinking about
Herbert W. Armstrong." But is it clear to the members of the
Worldwide Church of God? EVERY ONE OF MR. ARMSTRONG'S MAJOR BOOKS
HAVE BEEN ABOLISHED! Many of his teachings have been altered or
destroyed. What does it all mean? Did you know that many of those
changes were prophesied? Much of what has happened since Mr.
Armstrong's death is revealed in the book of Malachi.
If you will prayerfully study Malachi's Message, you will see
that there are many urgent issues confronting all of God's people
today. Please search the Scriptures as the Bereans did (Acts
17:11), and prove all things (1 Thes.5:21). Then BELIEVE YOUR
BIBLE - NOT MEN!
We have nothing to fear. God's "very elect" CANNOT be deceived
(Matt. 24:24).
A CHRISTIAN IS A PERSON WHO FOLLOWS CHRIST. Would Christ lead His
Church astray - in the wrong direction? No, He would not. If
God's Church goes astray, Christ rebukes it. If they fail to
repent, then He removes the lamp and raises up another Church or
Work. Most of the time this is what He did in past history (Rev.
2 and 3). Christ said, "...I will build my church; and the gates
of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matt. 16:18). So we know
that the Church Christ leads is somewhere on this earth and we,
as Christians, have the responsibility to be in that Church
FOLLOWING CHRIST - not a man, church or any organization. Are you
a true Christian? Do you follow Jesus Christ? This subject is so
terribly important that we don't dare leave it to chance. Our
salvation hangs in the balance!
END QUOTE
Flurry wants you to do as the Bereans did(Acts 17:11), and prove
all things (1 Thes.5:21.). Then RELIEVE YOUR BIBLE - NOT MEN!
Well Mr.Flurry, I did that MANY YEARS AGO and found your "Elijah
to come" (HWA MAN) seriously in ERROR on a number of points. I
found him to have turned and adopted the false Roman Catholic
teaching and practice of Church Government. I found him to have
fallen into the heresy of claiming the WCG was or would be the
144 thousand of the book of Revelation. I found him and his
organization to have grossly misused the tithes and offerings of
the people. I found him and many of his ministers to have ruled
the people with FEAR and to have abused and incorrectly applied
the doctrine of Church Discipline. I found him to be so vain and
pompous, so "big headed" in the last 15 years of his life that he
had to be careful when going through doors, in the event he got
his head stuck. I found he had in his writings, not only colored
things and given half truths, but at times just out and out LIED.
I had found this man to be often a preacher of one thing while a
doer of another. I found this man of yours completely unable to
get the Church "back on track" because he himself had steadily
wondered off track after his wife died in 1967.
You and the things you write in your book Gerald, are found
WANTING. You are a blind leader of the blind and you will all
fall into the ditch unless you open your eyes to the truth of the
matter and repent of your idolatry.
For the readers of this Website, let me give you some of the
statements of Flurry from his book and my comments concerning
them.
On page 3 we read:
It is interesting that Herbert W. Armstrong(HWA) had to get
the Work"back on track" twice(1974 and 1978).
How did HWA get the WCG back on track? Was it by marrying a woman
about 40 years younger than he, even when his own son protested
against the idea? Was it by ruling the Church with a rod of iron
and casting out members right and left who would not be "dumb
sheep" and leave their minds at the door? Was it by teaching the
"supremacy of Peter" doctrine and firmly establishing a pyramid
structure of Church government? Was it by claiming the WCG would
go to a place of safety during the coming tribulation? Was it by
changing for the third or fourth time the ruling on the use of
make-up for women, now he preached it was again sin after many
years of it not being sin.
On page 7 we read:
As time goes on, many more members of the Worldwide Church
of God are becoming deeply disturbed by the ......movement
away from what Jesus Christ taught through Herbert
W.Armstrong.... The Sardis era did God's work until it died
spiritually. Then HWA was raised up to start a new era.
Notice how Flurry just gives you these dogmatic statements. He
can do no other because it is a fact that anyone can read for
themselves in the Bible - the name of Herbert W. Armstrong is not
mentioned in God's word. You try to find it. You try to find
anything remotely saying God would in these last days speak
through HWA. Nowhere does Jesus Christ say he would teach us
through HWA. The book of Revelation that contains the Church ERA
chapters (and I still believe in those basic era divisions for
god's true church, but NOT as taught by HWA and the old WCG) does
not mention the name of HWA, it says NOTHING about HWA starting a
new era. The book of Revelation gives NO DATES as to when a
Church era STARTED or ENDED, yet many brainwashed WCG members
think it does. They have heard it (what Flurry says above) so
many times over the years, they think Revelation gives names and
dates, when it does not. They say that a lie repeated enough
times will be accepted as truth. Flurry accepts it as truth and
so can not see he has believed a lie. He thinks Christ taught
Herbert Armstrong in some special direct way, and can not see
that what HWA taught was often WRONG and CONTRARY to the
Scriptures, especially in the last 10 years of his life.
On page 9 Flurry talks about only following a man as that man
follows Christ. On page ten he says we must always test our
leaders with God's word. He includes himself. Then he sates:
CHRIST NEVER GOES ASTRAY! A man is not the trunk of the
tree. An organization is not the trunk of the tree. God's
word is the trunk of the tree. And what Christ established
through HWA for over 50 years is a big part of the tree
trunk.
He is quite correct in saying Christ NEVER GOES ASTRAY, but what
HWA established over 50 years was often ERROR. I've heard that
HWA in his early years kept Pentecost on Sivan 6th(error) then
later he went to a Monday Pentecost(still error) and only after
other ministers in the 70's got him to see the light of day did
he change to a Sunday Pentecost observance. HWA taught for
decades a teaching about Divorce and Remarriage that had MANY new
couples(some with children) coming into the WCG splitting up
because they were told they were really married to their first
wife or husband. HWA was back and forth like a yo-yo on whether
make-up for women was sin or not. He also taught for decades that
the lay members were only to "pray and pay" - no teaching the
word to others, which is contradicted by Acts 8:1-4 for just
starters.
On page 12 we read:
Mr.Armstrong applied scriptures to individuals like himself
...... most of God's people heard HWA say that he fulfilled
Matthew 17:10-11, Malachi 4:5-6, and other scriptures....
On page 13 Flurry asks the question "Was HWA 'erroneous' and
'spiritually presumptuous' for assigning Scriptures to himself?"
According to God's word HE SURE WAS!! The only example in the
Word where a man assigned Scriptures to himself. was the son of
man - Jesus - God in the flesh. Even John the Baptist who,
according to Jesus Himself, did fulfil the anti-type of the
"Elijah to come" NEVER SAID HE WAS THE ELIJAH TO COME when asked
if he was. John was truly humble as was Moses, not a bit like the
vain talking HWA, that alone should tell you something, but it
has gone right over the head of Gerald Flurry.
He(GF) tells us on page 14 that HWA said he fulfilled the Elijah
role. Friends, that alone tells you that HWA was NOT THE ELIJAH
TO COME because he said he was. The true Elijah yet to come
before the Day of the Lord will be humble just like John the
Baptist was and Moses before him. Two of the greatest men who
ever lived after Jesus. They were in vision with Christ on the
mount of transfiguration. Two of the very greatest but also two
of the most humblest of all men. So will be the Elijah to come -
humble - he will not declare he is the Elijah of end time
prophecy. Any man that does will prove by so doing he is a false
Elijah, just an inflated wind bag ready to burst and disappear in
the vast expanse of heaven.
On page 15 GF(Gerald Flurry) writes:
The big issue in this subject is this: Christ said an end-
time Elijah would come and restore all things. "Elijah"(HWA)
did come. NOW IF WE DENY THAT, WE ARE CALLING CHRIST A
LIAR!..... CHRIST SAYS WE MUST APPLY A PERSONALITY TO
Matthew 17!
I do not call Christ a liar - no way. Jesus knew what He was
talking about. He knew the prophecy of Malachi, and that Elijah
was to come before the Day of the Lord, just before that, last
year of this age. He said that John the baptist - a literal
PERSON, did fulfil that prophecy, yet an Elijah that would
restore all things would come. The anti-type, John was a person,
there is no need to NOT THINK that the Elijah to come that
Malachi spoke of will not also be a literal PERSON. I fully
believe it, but that Elijah person was most definitely NOT HWA.
We have already seen one reason why HWA could not have been the
Elijah to come. There are others.
The Baptist, who was a type, lived and preach RIGHT UP TO THE
PUBLIC MINISTRY OF JESUS. He did not fulfil the prophecy 50
years earlier and then die a number of years before the Messiah
came on the scene. He preached and prepared the way for the
Messiah, he lived into the time of the Messiah, he prepared a
people to receive the coming of the Messiah. So it will be with
the Elijah to come before the Day of the Lord.
Notice, Malachi says the Elijah is to come before the Day of the
Lord. The inference is, not that long before the day of the Lord,
so a people can be prepared lest the Lord come and smite the
earth with a curse or destruction. If this Elijah was to came
sooner, Malachi could have been inspired to have said something
like, "shall come before the time of trouble such as never was
since there was a nation" - see Daniel 12:1; Jer.30:7.
Still another reason why HWA was not work of Elijah to come. Part
of the work will be to turn the hearts of the fathers to the
children and the heart of the children to the fathers. HWA for
decades broke up families through his false understanding of the
doctrine of divorce and re-marriage. His daughters had very
little to do with him. And in the last number of years of his
life he even refused to talk to his only living son. HWA had a
very dismal record for turning his heart to his own children.
Hardly a contender for the Elijah role, why James Dobson of
"Focus on the Family" fame would be a more viable candidate for
the role of Elijah, on that one point.
Finally, HWA did not "restore all things" by any stretch of
imagination (but Flurry's imagination is very stretchable) but
if anything during his last years he DESTROYED many truths and
perverted others. His false teaching of Church GOVERNMENT is
still with us via the WCG and others. The Elijah to come still
needs to come and RESTORE ALL THINGS - there is much yet that
needs restoring!
GF says on page 18:
Mr.Armstrong clearly was doing the work of John the Baptist
and thereafter applied these scriptures to himself. That
work began at the end of the Church's second 19-year cycle.
Here the reader is hit between the eyes with the dogmatic 19
years cycle doctrine of the WCG under HWA. His own son Ted tried
to get him(HWA) to abandon the idea of two 19 year cycles before
1972 was near) for "the work" up to the beginning of the great
tribulation, but to no avail, till 1972 was history and we were
as before, no fireworks, no tribulation, then the 19 years cycles
were quietly dropped by most.
I have discovered that most groups that end up as a cult get some
wild peculiar doctrine that is either nowhere supported by the
Scriptures or is an interpretation of some obscure verse that
could be understood in various ways.
We find this on page 21:
SHORTLY BEFORE HE DIED, HE SAID HE HAD UNDER STOOD MORE IN
THE LAST 10 YEARS LIFE THAN IN ALL THE PREVIOUS DECADES.
This must have been one of those moments when he may have been,
as his son has said.....INSANE! Of course he may have come to
understand how easy it was to depart from the truths of God and
take tens of thousands with him into deception.
Page 22 we read:
Read HWA's own words when he introduced "Mystery of the
Ages" to God's people in a letter dated September 23,
1985(emphasis mine).
Dear Brethren and Co-Workers with Christ: Since last
December I have been working diligently on the LARGEST AND
MOST IMPORTANT BOOK IN MY LIFE ....... I CANDIDLY FEEL IT
MAY BE THE MOST IMPORTANT BOOK SINCE THE BIBLE.
Here you see a little or should I say BIG insight into HWA's vain
proudness, as he thought his book was perhaps the most important
book since the Bible. All the thousands of books that have been
been written since the Bible, and this he said was maybe the
greatest.
Today his book has been relegated to the dust can by those he put
in charge of the WCG. How true the inspired proverb: Pride goeth
before fall.
This is on page 24:
Mr.Armstrong instructed the ministers to insist that every
baptismal candidate read "Mystery of the Ages."
Reminds me of other cultic groups that have their "other books"
along with the Bible to read to be a full-fledged member in good
standing and attain that special spiritual standing that is not
obtainable with just the Bible.
..............
TO BE CONTINUED
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