Friday, April 3, 2009

Raising the Ruins and MOA

(Italics is in original, bolding is mine throughout this article.)

This is Mark Helm presenting an oral argument during the court case for PCG against WCG in the Ninth Circuit Court on December 6, 1999, where PCG would lose the Court Case to WCG: 'The PCG, he said, “believes that Mr. Armstrong was inspired by God when he wrote the book. There is no rewriting of the book that can happen. They believe that this is God’s word as was handed to Mr. Armstrong. So it’s not a question of, Oh, we’re going to now make up some views that we think are like it. Those are the views. And you can describe it either accurately or inaccurately, but those are the beliefs that they have and they can’t be rewritten.”' (Raising the Ruins, Chapter 19, under the heading 'Divine Inspiration').

That Prophet Gerald Flurry was obviously very impressed. Later on September 28, 2000, after the Court had revealed its decision for WCG That Prophet Gerald Flurry gave a motivational talk. 'He [That Prophet Gerald Flurry] reminded Dennis Leap and me about what we had seen....God inspired Mark Helm’s oral argument at the Ninth Circuit.' (Raising the Ruins, Chapter 20).

So Mark Helm was speaking under the inspiration of God, according to That Prophet Gerald Flurry, at that Ninth Circuit Court Case on December 6, 1999 where he said, concerning Mystery of the Ages by HWA and his other writings, 'There is no rewriting of the book that can happen...they can’t be rewritten.'

This is what is written in Mystery of the Ages on the PCG website, MOA Chapter 6 (PCG), under the heading 'One Church with One Government'.
The prophets set in the foundation of the Church are those of the Old Testament, whose writings were used to form a considerable part of New Testament and gospel teaching and functioning.

Evangelists were leading ministers...
This is the very same part of MOA Chapter 6 as HWA wrote it.
The prophets set in the foundation of the Church are those of the Old Testament, whose writings were used to form a considerable part of New Testament and gospel teaching and functioning. No prophets are mentioned as having either administrative, executive or preaching functions in the New Testament Church.
Evangelists were leading ministers...
The bolding has been cut out of the PCG version.

So, as others have pointed out before, That Prophet Gerald Flurry has changed that which Mark Helm, while inspired by God, according to That Prophet Gerald Flurry, said '[t]here is no rewriting of the book that can happen.' Obviously such things can happen therefore Mark Helm's inspiration was false and/or That Prophet Gerald Flurry got it wrong.

This teaching which That Prophet Gerald Flurry has sought to suppress was the teaching of the alleged end time Apostle and end time Elijah HWA from at least the August 1953, Good News, as may be seen in Herman Hoeh's article 'Government in our Church', pp. 3-4, 7-8.
Even though evangelists were next in authority under the apostles, next in spiritual order and above the evangelists are listed the prophets (I Cor. 12:28). Often in the Bible, prophet means preacher or poet. But in the New Testament history there are several instances mentioned in which prophets-both men and women-were used to foretell by special and personal revelation from God (Acts 11: 27-30; 21: 9-10). They spoke and exhorted the brethren and, if men, sometimes preached, although not usually evangelistic for the purpose of raising up churches.

Those who evangelized had authority over local churches, whereas the prophets had no government office or authority. Even in the Old Testament, where both men and women were used as prophets, none of the prophets had government authority unless they were also judges. In the New Testament, the only prophets with government authority were also apostles, evangelists, or elders (Acts 15:32; I Tim. 4:14).' (p.4).
And so we have That Prophet Gerald Flurry daring to do contrary to what Mark Helm said while he was, according to That Prophet Gerald Flurry, inspired by God. That Prophet Gerald Flurry has gone against what God supposedly inspired Mark Helm to say. That Prophet Gerald Flurry recognized Mark Helm's words to be inspired by God and he chose to go against them anyway. Such actions leave the following words sounding very hollow:
In truth, Mr. Armstrong NEVER said the book needed to be rewritten. [Why have you changed it then?] What he said was that more material could be added to the original text. [Then why did you cut material from it?]...The ONLY indication Mr. Armstrong ever gave about revising Mystery was the possibility of adding another chapter. [You have not done this either, you have cut words you did not appreciate. You have told 'Elijah', Shut up and tell the Truth the way I want you to tell it.']...Again, there is a huge difference between adding another chapter and wanting to rewrite the book because of major flaws.' [Oh, so you can rewrite the book if there are 'minor' flaws?] (Raising the Ruins, Chapter 11, heading 'Caught in a Tangled Web' [How very appropriate for the situation That Prophet Gerald Flurry has put himself into with his deceptive alterations. And they are not the only changes either.]).
If only the unsuspecting reader was aware of these things.

More on Raising the Ruins may be read here.

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