Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Philadelphia Church of God: The key of David isn’t a message!




The key of David isn’t a message!
By
Lonnie C. Hendrix

Gerald Flurry, the founder and current leader of the Philadelphia Church of God, broadcasts his message to the world via The Key of David television program. Flurry claims that he and his followers constitute the "Philadelphia era" of God's Church, and that all of the other groups which attempt to adhere to the teachings of Herbert Armstrong are "Laodiceans." In other words, Christ has given his message to Flurry and the PCOG to deliver to the world.

Why did Flurry decide to call his church’s television program The Key of David? “We took that name right out of Revelation 3:7 and a couple other scriptures,” he explained in an article entitled “What is the ‘Key of David’?” (https://www.thetrumpet.com/10776-what-is-the-key-of-david)
In that same article, Flurry calls the key of David “one of the deepest truths in the entire Bible.”  He goes on to claim that “it is a message from God—the message that Jesus Christ gives His Church to deliver to this world in this end time.” Flurry then proceeds to summarize his teaching on the subject with seven bullet points (God named his message after King David, “Jesus Christ is the head of the church,” “Christ has the key,” Christ has set “an open door” before the PCOG, “No man can shut it,” PCOG has “kept His Word,” and they “have not denied His name”).

How do all of these claims square with the Bible? The short answer is:  they don’t!

Let’s take a closer look at the actual scriptures which Flurry is using to make his claims about himself, his television program and his church. In the third chapter of the book of Revelation, we read:  “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth, and shutteth, and no man openeth; I know thy works:  behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it:  for thou has a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.” (Revelation 3:7-8)

First of all, it is interesting to note that the language employed in this verse was borrowed from a passage found in the book of Isaiah. This particular prophecy foretold that Shebna (the then administrator of the palace in Jerusalem) would fall and be replaced by Eliakim. Through Isaiah, God says that he would clothe Eliakim with Shebna’s robe and commit the government into his hands. (Isaiah 22:21). He goes on to say:  “And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.” (verse 22) Hence, Isaiah is saying that Eliakim will receive the position/power/authority which previously belonged to Shebna.

This language agrees with what Strong’s and Blue Letter Bible have to say about the Greek word translated here as key. In their outline of the biblical usage of this word, we read:  “I. a key A. since the keeper of the keys has the power to open and to shut B. metaph. In the NT to denote power and authority of various kinds” (https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/Lexicon/Lexicon.cfm?
strongs=G2807&t=KJV). In this connection, it is interesting to note that this is the same Greek word which is used to denote “the keys of the kingdom of heaven” in Matthew 16:19. It is likewise the same word that Christ employs in the beginning of the book of Revelation when he proclaims that he is in possession of “the keys of hell and death.” (Revelation 1:18)

Hence, just a modest amount of research clearly demonstrates that “the key of David” is not a message, but a symbol of Christ’s power and authority. Notice again in the verses that Flurry is using (Revelation 3:7-8) that it is CHRIST who possesses the key and is the one who has the ability to open and shut. Moreover, I can’t find anywhere in these scriptures where either the key or that ability to open and close is given to the Philadelphians (and they certainly aren’t given permission to give that key or ability to others). And, as for the significance of the key bearing King David’s name, doesn’t that clearly suggest that Christ is the chief representative and power within the House of David?

We will lay aside the arrogance implicit in claiming to be the Philadelphia era of God’s Church for the purposes of this article. We cannot, however, allow such a clear perversion of the obvious meaning of these rather obscure verses in the book of Revelation to go unchallenged. Once again, it appears to this writer that an Armstrongite has misapplied Scripture to himself and his followers and twisted it to reinforce his own message and agenda.


  

19 comments:

nck said...

Lonnie.

I admire your attempt to adress this issue.

I do however feel that in attempting to debate "doctrine" it should be represented correct.

It is my understanding that the official teaching on "church era's" was that:

a) On the COG timeframe we have entered the Laodicean era. This means ALL COG's are living in the Laodicean era.

The Laodicean era officially started with the departure of GTA. Since it was a clear split off from WCG with near identical doctrines.

Dr Hoeh recognized in about 1989 that the Church had entered the "Laodicean era."

Having said this.

The SEPARATE traits as for the Churches as described in Revelation have always existed within the Eras.

For instance the Sardis Era coexisted next to the supposed Philadelpia Era as it now coexists within the Laodicean Era.


The book of Revelation as HWA made it clear that scripture says "there are some among you......" in each era. That means that in the Sardis Era there were "Philadelphians,and Laodiceans". HWA always said that Sardis was a part of "Gods Church" and people among them would or could be in the resurection. It was not excluded to "members of wcg" although "chances" of obtaining "Godhood" through the right training would substantially increase by "receiving a training in the Philadelphia" part of the Church, which would have been WCG.

Neither was it claimed that ALL people who went with GTA would loose there eternal life. Although of course chances that it would would greatly increase if one would join said organisation.



To summarize.
PCG is working within the Laodicean era. It claims to hold fast to HWA's teachings and therefore be a "Philadelphian" remnant within the Laodicean era.

The very reason that EVERYTHING that is stated on PCG MUST be 100% correct is that by doing so you will be doing people a great service by showing HOW MUCH they have departed from WCG's original teachings and have descended in total culthood destroying families and individuals with their abberant teachings and behavior.

The only way to be of service to people in a cult is to NOT attack them but to show them an alternative. Many have been trapped in the honeycomb by believing PCG was the alternative to WCG while in reality the trap closes when you're in.

Personally I believe that the key to reaching stranded members is not to show how much they have strayed from that which is generally accepted in society or that which is taught by scientists and scolars but by first showing how much they have strayed from their original belief and how much they have sacrificed in order to maintain and increase their abberant behavior toward fellow men in order to please their Idol God made up by psychologically extremely disturbed story tellers.

One must recognize that some in the leadership have sacrificed their own kin by not giving them proper attention, education or medicine, sometimes resulting in death. One must recognize that the "loss aversion" of such persons is extremely high and that they will go to every length in order to preserve what they have "gained" or prevent the "loss" of what they have "learned." One will never win a debate on an intellectual level with such. Cracks only appear in moments when even more aberrant teachings are introduced to explain the former abberant teaching, it is these moments of "friction" that allow for questions.


nck






Anonymous said...

1 of 3

Lonnie C. Hendrix believes: "..an Armstrongite has misapplied Scripture to himself and his followers and twisted it to reinforce his own message and agenda.." His interesting write-up reminded me of a 1998 sermon series on "Isaiah-An Overview." A partial transcript of this specific sermon, discussing Isaiah 22, with information on Shebna and Eliakim without any further comment as 1 of 3, 2 of 3 and 3 of 3.
******
Here in Isaiah 22, and verse 15: this is just to give you an idea to look for as you study Isaiah. It says:
Isaiah 22:15 “Thus saith the Lord GOD of hosts, Go, get thee unto this treasurer, even unto Shebna, which is over the house, and say,”
So he’s telling them this and he’s bringing this man named Shebna into this. Now they were actual characters in the Bible, and they were actually characters in history. They were people and they fulfilled different things that they were supposed to do, physically, but I want to tell you right now that this Shebna.
This Shebna, spiritually, is talking about Satan! When you see the word Shebna: know that He’s also talking about Satan! This is another name for Satan and we’ll go on here.
You’ll see how this goes and there are a lot of different Scriptures that back this up, and surround this and I don’t have time to go into. We’ll go into this sometime later.
It says and, if you didn’t know this, if you did not know the True Plan of Salvation: it would be impossible, absolutely impossible, to know this! Because if you don’t know that Satan is going to be destroyed and you don’t know about the Great Last Day, you cannot understand this and, of course, we never did before.
So, he goes through here and he says:
16 “What hast thou here...”
This is God saying this.
…and whom hast thou here, that thou hast hewed thee out a sepulchre here…
Well, this thing seems to be pretty permanent here: even as a sepulcher, you know; hewed out! He’s talking about Satan, remember, here and also the physical man, but he’s talking about Satan. That’s the way we’re going on this.
“…as he that heweth him out a sepulchre on high, and that graveth an habitation for himself in a rock?”
This is very permanent! See, Satan has put himself here very permanently; hasn’t he? He has fastened himself to this earth. He is the god of this world.
17 “Behold, the LORD...”
In verse 17: behold, the Lord…
“…will carry thee away with a mighty captivity…”
That’s what He’s going to do! He’s going to take him away for a thousand years, and chain him up and it says:
“…and will surely cover thee.”
And he’s going to do that!
Isaiah 22:18 “He will surely violently turn and toss thee like a ball into a large country…”
And isn’t that in so many places in Psalms and other places: what He is going to do to Satan? He will take him like a ball and just toss him! You know; he doesn’t have any a surety. He’s tried to fasten himself. He says: “I’m going to do all this because, you know; God kind of forgets and He won’t remember,” but God does remember!
“…there shalt thou die…”
Now, we know Satan’s going to die! He is going to toss him around. He is finally going to kill him.
“…and there the chariots of thy glory shall be the shame of thy lord’s house.”
19 “And I will drive thee from thy station, and from thy state shall he pull thee down.”
Who is He going do this to? It’s Satan!

******
John, to be con't

Anonymous said...

2 of 3
con't
******
Now we come along and it says:
Isaiah 22:20 “And…
Remember, these are two men in history, but that was the physical. We’re talking spiritual here: and…
“…it shall come to pass in that day…”
What do you mean? What day? Well, in that day that He pulls him down! In other words, the Great Judgment Day: the Great Last Day is beginning:
“…that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah:”
Now Eliakim, the spiritual part of that, is Christ! This is; now, he’s referring to Christ. It says in verse 21!
21 “And I will clothe him with thy robe, and strengthen him with thy girdle, and I will commit thy government into his hand.”
He’s going to take it all away from Satan. He’s going to give it all to Christ. This is when Christ comes in glory. It’s the only time He comes in true glory on that throne with 144,000 with Him, in that Great White Throne in the Great Last Day, when that second resurrection happens and all mankind will see him standing there in the new heavens and new earth. He’s going to give that government to who? To Christ!
“…and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah.”
And that hasn’t happened! It’s only going to happen way at the “end,” isn’t it? So we know this is talking about Him!
Isaiah 22:22 “And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.”
Now back in Revelation: I’ll just turn there quick. You don’t have to. You’re familiar with this, but I want to read it the way he says it and, of course, when you’re trying to flip to a page that you want, you don’t get it. Remember what it says here about the Philadelphian era, and it doesn’t just: this is not just applying to the Philadelphian era. This is applying to Christ and each one when they open up each letter of each one of the Churches for this is referring to them. He says; this is Revelation 3, verse 7!
Revelation 3:7 “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he…”
Who? See: Christ!
“…that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David…”
That’s what He says in Isaiah He’s going to give Him!
“…he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth;”
See, and then He starts to talk; you know.
8 “I know your works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it…”
And this is what He’s talking about back here in Isaiah!
Well, now, let’s come back to Isaiah and finish this. So He says this about Christ; this is Christ. Eliakim is pictured as Christ.
Now, somebody else has him pictured as Mr. Armstrong. Duh! How can any of this apply to Mr. Armstrong? Mr. Armstrong was a great servant of God and he did what he was supposed to do by the power of God’s Spirit! Now he’s dead. Leave the man alone! Let’s wait until we see him in that resurrection. It’s going to be a happy time. Let’s build. Let’s build upon what he discovered and what he was encouraged to see by the Spirit!
******
John, to be con't

Anonymous said...

3 of 3
******
Verse 23, back in Isaiah 22!
Isaiah 22:23 “And I will fasten him…”
This is Christ!
“…as a nail in a sure place; and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father’s house.”
That’s Jesus Christ!
How could that be Mr. Armstrong? Do you see? It couldn’t be. Well, the man’s wacky anyway. Well, I shouldn’t say that. I don’t want to get sued. The man is just deceived. Let’s put it that way. He just doesn’t quite understand. All right, verse 24!
24 “And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father’s house…”
And this is Christ:
“…the offspring and the issue, all vessels of small quantity, from the vessels of cups, even to all the vessels of flagons.”
In other words, everything, everything that the Father has: it’s all Christ’s and we’re joint-heirs with Him!
Now, if you didn’t know the Plan of Salvation, in the next verse, you could get confused! And if you didn’t know, not just this, but many, many other scriptures throughout the Bible about putting Christ high, putting Satan low and taking, ripping, Satan out of his place and putting Christ there, then you wouldn’t know this! If you didn’t really know what was going to happen, you’d read the scripture and you’d go: “Well, uh, oh, oh! What’s he talking about?” He says:
25 “In that day…”
In that day…
“…saith the LORD of hosts, shall the nail that is fastened in the sure place be removed.”
Well, that sounds confusing if you think that is about Christ, but it isn’t! He already told you what He’s going to do with Eliakim: Christ and we already know that from all the other scriptures in the Bible.
What’s the only one He’s going to take away?
All human beings are going to be there but, as we read earlier, this Satan, this Shebna, that has tried to establish himself with a sure nail. And you have to look at all of these words, and I just really don’t have the time to go through all this, but I want this to be in your head to understand this and so many other scriptures talking about this. So, if you didn’t know the Plan, now you’d get confused; wouldn’t you? But when you know the Plan and you know there’s only one that He’s going to kill, of course: him and all of his angels! But the goats: He’s going to kill! He says this nail in that day, the same day that He talks about putting Christ there: He says he going to be removed…
“…and be cut down, and fall; and the burden that was upon it shall be cut off…”
And He is talking about Satan! He is going to be cut off forever and that burden? Remember: he puts that bondage on everyone!
“…for the LORD hath spoken it.”
He’s talking about that and, in physical terms here, He was talking about this burden of Babylon but, then, we know what Babylon stands for. So I don’t have the time to really go into it here, go into this and give you the: all the background scriptures, but as you have learned from me, I generally do not say things unless I have plenty of backup for it. I don’t like to get stuck in a corner and say: “Ooh, aah, I don’t know how that works. I just said it.” I don’t like that. We’ve done that from in Church all these years, and we’re not going to do it anymore.
******
John

DennisCDiehl said...

"We cannot, however, allow such a clear perversion of the obvious meaning of these rather obscure verses in the book of Revelation to go unchallenged."

How can one know the "obvious meaning" of "these rather obscure verses"?

Dennis said...

Sounds like Lonnie has solved God's puzzle as did Art Mokarrow. Now we can all relax..

Unknown said...

Keys are so old fashioned and out of date in the modern world. Shouldn't it now be changed to "THE PASSWORD OF DAVID" ?? :-)

Dennis said...

John...oh my....what a complicated god you serve who can't stick its neck out and speak plainly and without the code speak.

Byker Bob said...

Gerald Flurry is an example of someone who exploits and uses "the law" not in a loving way, but in a mean-spirited sort of fashion. No empathy, no feeling guilty over the obvious tragic results in peoples' lives. He's one of several "leaders" in Armstrongism that are reminiscent of Cruella DeVille!

BB

Anonymous said...

Looking at the evidence, the Philadelphian era never existed. When I started attending in the 1970s, I was told by the 'oldies' that only one in three baptised members still attended services. Not only that, my experience was that most members had internalized church tyranny. They accepted it as normal Christian behaviour, even though they knew it condemned in the bible.
So where is the Philadelphian era in all this?
Again it's all Herb marketing.

Anonymous said...

Whatever the key of David is, it's not what Flurry thinks it is. He thinks it is the key that unlocks prophecy. And what key unlocks prophecy? He thinks it is knowing who the USA and Britain are in prophecyi, i.e. British Israelism.

But BI is not biblical. So Flurry does not have the key. His "Key of David" program is mis-named.

Further, Herb plagiarized BI and passed it off as new revelation to him. It wasn't new at all. If it didn't already exist, he could not have plagiarized it.

By hiding his plagiarism he could claim to receive revelation, and thus, claim to be an apostle. So, he was a false apostle.

Flurry got his message from a false apostle.

Miller Jones/Lonnie C Hendrix said...

nck, My purpose was to use the very scriptures which Flurry and the PCG point to as the justification for their writings/sermons. They believe in church eras - I don't believe that I expressed an opinion on that subject. I did mention that claiming that this particular passage applies to you and your group is rather arrogant (and I think I'll stick to that assessment).
John, thanks for your elaboration on the scriptures.
Dennis, your sarcasm is endearing. No, I have never claimed or implied that I've solved God's puzzle. If you're interested, I stated my purpose for writing this post in my response to nck above. It is my contention that Flurry and company have twisted and perverted the meaning and symbolism to serve their own interests - My interest is in clearly pointing out that the scriptures in question don't conform to Flurry and PCG's interpretation of it. And, while I accept that Scripture is full of errors and contradictions, I still believe it has merit and use. Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't your current views on scripture suggest that one reading/interpretation is just as valid as another (since it's all gobbledygook anyway). In other words, is there anything in scripture that would be clear and unambiguous to you?

Gordon Feil said...

tektonics.org is a pretty useful site for resolving scriptural contradictions.

nck said...

Well Miller.

In your posting I missed 4:56 assessment that "the k o d" is the "understanding" of BI. Which gives PCG a "biblical" mandate within their specific interpretation of the prophetic escathological timeframe and thus for them explains flurryism and flurryistic reading of prophecy as a complete abberation from the teachings of HWA despite their 3 million dollar acquisition of WCG copyrights of his major writings.

Nck

RSK said...

The Flurry group has always appropriated obscure passages for themselves. Its why they mine the minor prophets so heavily.

Anonymous said...

I thought it was a pretty decent article. Thanks for your input on the matter.

Anonymous said...

To further clarify what "key of David" means in the PCG, the Queen of England supposedly sits on the same throne David sat on, ruling over the tribes of Israel. That's why the knowledge of British Israelism is "the key of David" (according to Flurry).

Anonymous said...

Personally I believe that the key to reaching stranded members is not to show how much they have strayed from that which is generally accepted in society or that which is taught by scientists and scholars but by first showing how much they have strayed from their original belief ...

Bingo.

Anonymous said...

PCG members can see how MUCH of Armstrong's beliefs Flurry has changed (gradually over time) by going to the link below.

https://hwarmstrong.com/church-of-god-info/PCG-Doctrinal-Changes.htm