Banned by HWA recently featured a post entitled "King Gerald Flurry, the Stone of Herb and the New Place of Safety."
http://armstrongismlibrary.blogspot.com/2018/07/king-gerald-flurry-stone-of-herb-and.html It discusses a modification made by the current leader of the Philadelphia Church of God (Gerald Flurry) to Herbert Armstrong's old teachings about the throne of David and a place of safety for church members during the Great Tribulation. And, although I commented there on the absurdity of these new understandings, it occurred to me that it might be more constructive and persuasive to take a fresh look at the basis for those teachings and explore again what the pertinent Scriptures actually reveal about them.
Herbert Armstrong's teaching about David's throne appeared in a booklet entitled
The United States and British Commonwealth in Prophecy (which went through a number of revisions over the years). For those who are interested, you may view a copy of the 1967 version of the booklet here:
https://www.hwalibrary.com/cgi-bin/download/viewitem.cgi In this booklet, Armstrong presented some rather astounding interpretations of Biblical prophecy and history and presented them as revelations from Almighty God. It is my hope that what follows will demonstrate clearly to anyone who is willing to analyze the scriptures referenced by these men (Armstrong and Flurry) that God's view of these matters is radically different from theirs!
In the seventeenth chapter of the book of
Ezekiel, we are presented with a riddle about eagles and a cedar tree (verses 1-10). The prophet then goes on to explain that these things are symbolic of how the king of Babylon will punish the king of Israel for his rebellion against God and his overlord (verses 11-21). The history of how all of this actually played out is recorded in the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth chapters of
II Kings and the thirty-sixth chapter of
II Chronicles. And all of these accounts make very clear that David's dynasty was completely overthrown by King Nebuchadnezzar.
Nevertheless, Ezekiel also gives us this hope: "This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will take a branch from the top of a tall cedar, and I will plant it on the top of Israel’s highest mountain. It will become a majestic cedar, sending forth its branches and producing seed. Birds of every sort will nest in it, finding shelter in the shade of its branches. And all the trees will know that it is I, the Lord, who cuts the tall tree down and makes the short tree grow tall. It is I who makes the green tree wither and gives the dead tree new life. I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will do what I said!'" (verses 22-24) This is obviously speaking of Jesus Christ.
In this connection, notice this prophecy from the book of
Isaiah: "Out of the stump of David’s family will grow a shoot—yes, a new Branch bearing fruit from the old root. And the Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. He will delight in obeying the Lord. He will not judge by appearance nor make a decision based on hearsay. He will give justice to the poor and make fair decisions for the exploited. The earth will shake at the force of his word, and one breath from his mouth will destroy the wicked. He will wear righteousness like a belt and truth like an undergarment." (Isaiah 11:1-5)
Notice also this similar language from the book of
Jeremiah: "For the time is coming,' says the Lord, 'when I will raise up a righteous descendant from King David’s line. He will be a King who rules with wisdom. He will do what is just and right throughout the land. And this will be his name: ‘The Lord Is Our Righteousness.’ In that day Judah will be saved, and Israel will live in safety.'" (Jeremiah 23:5-6) And, "“In those days and at that time I will raise up a righteous descendant [Hebrew a righteous branch] from King David’s line. He will do what is just and right throughout the land. In that day Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this will be its name: ‘The Lord Is Our Righteousness.’ For this is what the Lord says: David will have a descendant sitting on the throne of Israel forever." (Jeremiah 33:15-17)
Finally, we read in the book of
Amos: "In that day I will restore the fallen house of David. I will repair its damaged walls. From the ruins I will rebuild it and restore its former glory." (Amos 9:11, quoted in Acts 15:16) All of these scriptures make very plain that God's promises to David find their fulfillment in Jesus Christ.
Notice also, this passage from the New Testament which clearly identifies Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of the promises to David - in the book of
Luke, we read:
"In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David. Gabriel appeared to her and said, 'Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!' Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean.
'Don’t be afraid, Mary,' the angel told her, 'for you have found favor with God! You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!'" (Luke 1:26-33) Hence, for those who profess to regard the Bible as their standard, it should be crystal clear that God regards Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of his promise to David.
Continuing, in the book of
Ezekiel, we read: "'O you corrupt and wicked prince of Israel, your final day of reckoning is here!' This is what the Sovereign Lord says: 'Take off your jeweled crown, for the old order changes. Now the lowly will be exalted, and the mighty will be brought down. Destruction! Destruction! I will surely destroy the kingdom. And it will not be restored until the one appears who has the right to judge it. Then I will hand it over to him.'" (Ezekiel 21:25-27) In the KJV, the language is "I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it: and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him." The scriptures already quoted in II Kings and II Chronicles talk about this turmoil within the royal house of Judah before it was finally and completely overthrown by the Babylonians. Notice that after that final destruction that the throne would not be restored "until the one appears who has the right to judge it - then I will hand it over to him" (once again, clearly referring to Jesus Christ).
In the book of
Jeremiah, we learn about God's commission to Jeremiah as his prophet (Jeremiah 1:5). We read: "Then the Lord reached out and touched my mouth and said, 'Look, I have put my words in your mouth! Today I appoint you to stand up against nations and kingdoms. Some you must uproot and tear down, destroy and overthrow. Others you must build up and plant.'" (verses 9-10)
Later, in the same book and speaking specifically about Israel, we read:
"In the past I deliberately uprooted and tore down this nation. I overthrew it, destroyed it, and brought disaster upon it. But in the future I will just as deliberately plant it and build it up. I, the Lord, have spoken!'...'The day is coming,' says the Lord, 'when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant, though I loved them as a husband loves his wife,' says the Lord.
'But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel after those days,' says the Lord. 'I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. And they will not need to teach their neighbors, nor will they need to teach their relatives, saying, ‘You should know the Lord.’ For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will know me already,' says the Lord. 'And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.'" (Jeremiah 31:28-34)
Notice also, the full context of that passage from the thirty-third chapter of Jeremiah (quoted above):
"'The day will come, says the Lord, when I will do for Israel and Judah all the good things I have promised them. 'In those days and at that time I will raise up a righteous descendant from King David’s line. He will do what is just and right throughout the land. In that day Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this will be its name: 'The Lord Is Our Righteousness.’
For this is what the Lord says: David will have a descendant sitting on the throne of Israel forever. And there will always be Levitical priests to offer burnt offerings and grain offerings and sacrifices to me.'
Then this message came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “This is what the Lord says: If you can break my covenant with the day and the night so that one does not follow the other, only then will my covenant with my servant David be broken. Only then will he no longer have a descendant to reign on his throne. The same is true for my covenant with the Levitical priests who minister before me. And as the stars of the sky cannot be counted and the sand on the seashore cannot be measured, so I will multiply the descendants of my servant David and the Levites who minister before me.'
The Lord gave another message to Jeremiah. He said, 'Have you noticed what people are saying?—‘The Lord chose Judah and Israel and then abandoned them!’ They are sneering and saying that Israel is not worthy to be counted as a nation.
But this is what the Lord says: 'I would no more reject my people than I would change my laws that govern night and day, earth and sky. I will never abandon the descendants of Jacob or David, my servant, or change the plan that David’s descendants will rule the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Instead, I will restore them to their land and have mercy on them.'" (verses 14-26)
In reviewing these scriptures, it is clear to me that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of God's promises to David; and that ANY OTHER understanding is inconsistent with what the Bible states. And, although this treatise should preclude the acceptance of any of Herbert Armstrong's speculations regarding David's throne, as far as his contention that Queen Elizabeth II currently occupies David's throne, I have previously addressed this in a number of posts on this blog:
http://godcannotbecontained.blogspot.com/2016/02/god-david-and-anglo-israelism-part-1.html
http://godcannotbecontained.blogspot.com/2016/02/god-david-and-anglo-israelism-part-2.html
http://godcannotbecontained.blogspot.com/2016/02/god-david-and-anglo-israelism-part-3.html
Finally, as for a "place of safety" for Armstrong's and Flurry's followers, this teaching is easily refuted. In his message to the church in Philadelphia, we read that Christ promised, "Because you have obeyed my command to persevere, I will protect you from the great time of testing that will come upon the whole world to test those who belong to this world." (Revelation 3:10) Please note:
1) Protection is promised, but no mention is made of a "place of safety"
2) This "time of testing" is for "those who belong to this world," not those who belong to God.
If one accepts that the messages to the seven churches reflect seven distinct and successive eras of church history, then it would follow that protection for these folks will mean death, as the folks from the Laodicean era would be the ones who actually lived through these events. OR If we acknowledge that these characteristics apply to folks in all eras of the church, then the teaching about church eras is rendered meaningless.
Likewise, if we look to the twelfth chapter of
Revelation, we see that the wording there clearly refers to the entire history of the church - NOT just the time of trouble at the end. We read there:
"Then I witnessed in heaven an event of great significance. I saw a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon beneath her feet, and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant, and she cried out because of her labor pains and the agony of giving birth.
Then I witnessed in heaven another significant event. I saw a large red dragon with seven heads and ten horns, with seven crowns on his heads. His tail swept away one-third of the stars in the sky, and he threw them to the earth. He stood in front of the woman as she was about to give birth, ready to devour her baby as soon as it was born.
She gave birth to a son who was to rule all nations with an iron rod. And her child was snatched away from the dragon and was caught up to God and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where God had prepared a place to care for her for 1,260 days.
Then there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and his angels. And the dragon lost the battle, and he and his angels were forced out of heaven. This great dragon—the ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, the one deceiving the whole world—was thrown down to the earth with all his angels.
Then I heard a loud voice shouting across the heavens, 'It has come at last—salvation and power and the Kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters has been thrown down to earth—the one who accuses them before our God day and night. And they have defeated him by the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony. And they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens! And you who live in the heavens, rejoice! But terror will come on the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you in great anger, knowing that he has little time.”
When the dragon realized that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. But she was given two wings like those of a great eagle so she could fly to the place prepared for her in the wilderness. There she would be cared for and protected from the dragon for a time, times, and half a time.
Then the dragon tried to drown the woman with a flood of water that flowed from his mouth. But the earth helped her by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that gushed out from the mouth of the dragon. And the dragon was angry at the woman and declared war against the rest of her children—all who keep God’s commandments and maintain their testimony for Jesus."
Hence, however one chooses to interpret the
symbols in this chapter, history (both Biblical and secular) makes clear that Mary and the Church were protected in the world - they were NOT physically isolated from the rest of humanity in some cave or desert stronghold! Indeed, the entirety of the Bible reflects a Divine inclination to protect people in broad daylight. Even if we look at individuals who fled for their safety (like David and Elijah), we see that God eventually called them back to face their challenges. God clearly doesn't need physical isolation, barriers or weapons to protect "His" people, and the Biblical record reflects that fact.
Thus, for this blogger, Armstrong's and Flurry's teachings are shown to be inconsistent with Biblical prophecy and history. Moreover, after taking a close look at some of the scriptures which they have employed to support their teachings, it is clear that God's vision of the future is clearly different from theirs (and much more exciting to contemplate)!
