Amazing Statements Made by
Philadelphia Church of God Ministers
The following is a collection of amazing, ridiculous, and oftentimes humorous statements made by PCG ministers (including comments from the former PCG member).
Please email us if you were in PCG and remember similar ones.
Also read: Amazing Statements by Worldwide Church of God Ministers
- During a Holy Day sermon a few years ago, the minister said, "I don't know if Christ fasted. He may have fasted. He probably did. I just don't know of any place in the Bible where he fasted." Wow. I'm thinking...40 days and 40 nights??
- Stephen Flurry, during a summer sermon about a PYC camper's comment, said: "I asked if anyone of the campers had read the entire Bible. One camper raised his hand. That's quite an accomplishment. I haven't read the entire Bible." I thought, but isn't Stephen Flurry the Dean of PCG's College?? and an evangelist?? Talk about not qualified for the job.
- One time our pastor said, "You can't study the Bible too much or you'll get wacky." (No chance of that happening to those guys, right?)
- During a weekly sermon, our minister said, "Because I am a minister, I will always be over you in authority in the World Tomorrow." Somehow I can't find that concept in the Bible.
- The ministers often used something (or someone) from the Bible to justify what they themselves were doing. I'll never forget the time our minister ridiculously said, "Diotrephes was used by God to clean up the church."
- When we were new in the PCG; our daughter had just been fitted with braces to widen her upper jaw and bring her molars in line so she could actually chew. The local elder found out about the braces and told us quite seriously that we could have had the same result just by "picking up a sturdy stick out of the yard and having her bite on it every day."
- One time our pastor bellowed out, "I treat my wife like a queen, but she has to remember I AM THE KING!" What about loving her as his own body? Of course, no mention was made of that.
- To justify spying on members, the minister told all of us, "We need spies in the church to help keep Satan out."
- During the annual "Welcome to the Feast" sermon, the minister told us that we were commanded by God to eat anything our souls desired. Then he followed that up by saying, "Be careful not to eat too much steak, or you will catch a cold." More likely, he meant, "Don't eat too well or you won't have anything left over to give to us."
- During a regular weekly Sabbath sermon, the San Antonio local elder said, "Every word that comes out of Mr. Flurry's mouth is inspired truth." Every word?
- At the Feast in Edmond in 2006 one minister said: "Do you suppose Christ looked at the Father and said, "Are they worth it, or do we need a Plan C?"
- One of the most ridiculous statements I ever heard was out of the mouth of Craig Winters. It came from a disagreement of what the Bible actually said and what he said it said. The end statement was: "What you need to do is get your head out of the Bible and stick to reading Mr. Flurry's books."
- Wayne Turgeon [Flurry's son-in-law] once told me, "It does not matter if Gerald Flurry was preaching outright heresy, I would still follow him."
- This was actually stated by Dennis Leap in 2004 when he was instructing ministers on how to conduct in-house visits to prospective members: "Let them know that we are not after people's money."
- I heard a PCG minister in a sermon make the asinine remark, "God is Love. God shows His love toward us with the Law. Therefore, God IS LAW!"
- Our minister went on a rampage to try to counter attacks of PCG being called a cult. He roared, "Jesus Christ started a cult and I'm PROUD to be in a cult!!"
- In a Spokesman Club meeting one time, Craig Winters instructed us, "You should not wear slip-on shoes, loafers or penny loafers, and don't wear shoes with tassels. Tie shoes are the shoes that you, as leading men in the church, should wear." We were discouraged from wearing "burgundy shoes" but "black and sometime brown shoes would be okay." Months after this lecture, the local minister and his three sons were all still wearing slip-on" shoes.
- When I said in a counseling session that I was not perfect, our local elder said, "Of course you're not perfect. If you were perfect, you'd be sitting here (pointing to his seat) and I'd be sitting over there." (pointing to my seat)
- I will never forget the time I sat in services and heard Gerald Flurry yell, "He should have his head shot off! Then we will resurrect him, put his head back on, and teach him a thing or two about government!" (He was referring to a former member who had written GF a letter to ask him to repent.)
- Without one ounce of empathy for members already struggling financially, Alex Harrison told us, "I know some people have to drive a long ways. Well, start earlier!!"
- There was a man whom Max Rumler had been visiting but didn't want in his "church." This man was threatening suicide and Max was sick of him phoning him up. Finally, Max told the man, "Go ahead and do it!" I kid you not!
[Read the March 2013 letter to ESN which gives more details on this in the last paragraph.]
- Dennis Leap, in talking about Feast reservations, once said, "If any member makes hotel/house reservations before I say it is okay, I will personally call and cancel them myself!"
- Desperate to hold on to the few remaining members in his Trinidad, Caribbean congregation, Samuel Seebran made a totally pathetic and unbiblical statement by saying, "When one person leaves, God will fill the void by replacing them with another" and "We are expendable and replaceable." Thankfully God is not that callous with people!
Amazing Statements by Worldwide Church of God Ministers