Gerald Flurry
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Gerald Flurry is the founder and Pastor General of the Philadelphia Church of God (PCG), based in Edmond, Oklahoma, and is a staunch supporter of the legacy and doctrines of Herbert W. Armstrong (founder of the Worldwide Church of God). He is presenter of the television program The Key of David, is editor in chief of The Philadelphia Trumpet magazine, and is founder of Herbert W. Armstrong College in Edmond, Oklahoma. The Philadelphia Church of God owns the copyrights to nineteen of Herbert W. Armstrong's writings.
He believes that the Worldwide Church of God under Herbert W. Armstrong was a church era within the overall history of the true church going back through the centuries to the apostles (as did Armstrong); he and the members of his church look back historically to the Waldensians and other Sabbath-keeping Christian groups of European fame as proof of continuous incarnations of the same basic body of faith. Flurry believes that in the current era, the Philadelphia Church of God is the one true Church led by Christ, following in the footsteps of the old Worldwide Church of God under Herbert W. Armstrong.
The Bible doctrines espoused by him, Armstrong, and the members of the PCG are thought by them to be the true doctrines of the Bible, devoid of error through tradition, mistranslation, and Catholic or pagan influence. These doctrines, called by some Armstrongism (derogatorily), are assumed to be identical to those expounded on by Herbert W. Armstrong, but closer examination by anyone who honestly seeks to find if this is true would come to the conclusion that this is not true at all. Many topics Mr Armstrong used to teach have been changed by the PCG, space does not allow to go into to much detail but one can study who Mr Armstrong taught was the 144,000 mentioned in the book of Revelation, also one can study Mr Armstrong's understanding of where the King of the South would come from. Mr Flurry changed some parts of Mr Armstrong's book Mystery of the Ages, because Mr Armstrong taught that there would be no prophets involved with administrative issues in this end time era and because Mr Flurry sees himself as a prophet that sentence was taken out of the book.
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[edit] Worldwide Church of God
Gerald Flurry was a minister with the Worldwide Church of God (WCG) at the time of Herbert Armstrong's death in 1986. During the next three years, WCG made several doctrinal changes that Flurry objected to as doctrinally false. He began to make his opposition to these changes known and felt inspired in his Bible studies, thus producing a manuscript that would become the book, Malachi's Message to God’s Church Today; all this led to his being summoned by church leaders to appear before them. Mr. Flurry was subsequently dismissed from the WCG on 7 December 1989.
[edit] As head of the Philadelphia Church of God
A loyal group of supporters began to form around Flurry at this point, convinced that God was using him in some way—hopefully to get the Church “back on track.” After publishing Malachi's Message to God’s Church Today and distributing it to as many WCG members as possible, Flurry has continued to publish a variety of booklets—mostly on prophecy; these all expressed agreement with and support for Herbert W. Armstrong’s teachings, though in reality subtly things were changed from what Mr Armstrong taught. Gerald Flurry strongly supports the belief that Armstrong fulfilled the Mathew 17 office of the “Elijah” or the second John the Baptist (fulfilling the same role as those figures: i.e. restoring full doctrine to the church and paving the way for the arrival of Jesus Christ the Messiah). These booklets also delved into scriptures and prophecies more relevant to the immediate present which had never been fully commented on by Armstrong in the past. And yet the PCG teaches that Mr Armstrong "restored all things"[citation needed]
Membership of the PCG began to number several thousand by the mid 1990s, and then leveled off. People who support the work financially but are not members have continued to grow in number.
[edit] Battle with the WCG over Armstrong’s writings
Despite the fact that the WCG owned the copyrights to Mystery of the Ages, written by Herbert W. Armstrong, Flurry decided in 1997 to print and distribute it under the “fair use" law. This book summed up Armstrong's teachings, and according to both he and Flurry, was a synopsis of the Bible and the true Gospel which had never before truly been understood, but rather had been replaced by a "counterfeit" Gospel focusing on Jesus the personage, instead of the Gospel message, or "good news" he proclaimed.
The stated goal of printing Mystery of the Ages was to distribute it free of charge to "the largest audience possible”—a goal originally expressed by Armstrong in 1985 when he introduced the book to the sophomore class at the Worldwide Church of God college. The book had been put out of print and copies destroyed by the WCG leadership within three years of Armstrong’s death. The leadership of the Worldwide Church of God rejected that the PCG printing of this book was "fair use" of their copyright and thus began a six year court battle over fair use of the copyrights, with the WCG losing the initial round at the appellate level, then appealing and winning a split decision with the ninth circuit court. While eighteen other works were being considered separately by the courts and were still in dispute with the PCG, the WCG leadership offered Flurry and the PCG all of Armstrong’s works for three million dollars on the condition that internal WCG documents, memos, and emails obtained through discovery be handed back by the PCG. According to Stephen Flurry’s (Gerald Flurry's son) book Raising the Ruins, this condition was regarded as a deal breaker and the WCG was told to prepare to resume litigation. Within hours, the condition to the sale of the copyright was removed from the proposal and an agreement was reached.
The Philadelphia Church of God now owns the copyrights to nineteen of Herbert W. Armstrong’s most significant works, including all his full length books, and these are offered and distributed free “as a public service.” Unfortunatly there is no guarantee that you will truly be reading what Mr Armstrong really wrote, for it is a fact that some sentences were deleted from Mr Armstrongs book Mystery of the Ages.
[edit] With the Philadelphia Church of God today
[edit] Writings
Literature written by Gerald Flurry:
- Ezekiel: The End-Time Prophet.
- Malachi's Message to God's Church Today.
- The God Family Vision.
- The Last Hour.
- Conspiracy Against Fatherhood.
- Daniel—Unsealed at Last!.
- From the Beginning.
- Haggai: Proof of God’s Work Today.
- Isaiah’s End-Time Vision.
- Jeremiah and the Greatest Vision in the Bible.
- Jerusalem in Prophecy.
- Jonah: A Strong Warning To God's Church.
- Nahum—An End-Time Prophecy For Germany.
- No Freedom Without Law.
- Repentance Toward God.
- The Former Prophets—God’s Royal Family.
- The Key of David.
- The King of the South.
- The Prophet Joel—Christ’s Bride and the Day of the Lord.
- The Rising Beast—Germany’s Conquest of the Balkans.
- Unveiled At Last: The Royal Book of Revelation.
- Winston S. Churchill: The Watchman.
- Zephaniah’s Day of the Lord—“It Hastens Greatly”.
- We Have Had Our Last Chance.
Literature co-authored by Gerald Flurry:
- Germany and the Holy Roman Empire.(Co-authored with J. Tim Thompson and Stephen Flurry)
- Character in Crisis.(Co-authored with Stephen Flurry)
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.(Co-authored with Wayne Turgeon)
