Gerald Flurry and the King of the East

From time to time, I force myself to check in on what the various WCG splinter groups are doing. I recently subjected myself to an installment of Gerald Flurry’s Key of David program, and I must say that I was impressed by “that prophet’s” ability to warp and twist prophetic Scripture. The program focused on events in the Middle East, specifically Lebanon, and explored how events there would lead to the fulfillment of prophecies in Psalm 83 and Daniel (Chapters 11 and 12).

However, a more general word about Flurry’s interpretations of prophecy is appropriate before I explore the problems with this particular utterance. Mr. Flurry frequently makes the mistake of applying specific prophecies to himself, his Philadelphia Church of God or groups that he doesn’t like. He is also fond of transferring the identities of ancient peoples and nations to modern nations – especially with regard to the United States and Britain as Israel (which many folks, including yours truly, have debunked here and elsewhere). Finally, “that prophet” has a propensity for seeing almost every prophetic utterance in the Bible as applying to the “end time.” Unfortunately, these predispositions have led Mr. Flurry (not unlike Mr. Herbert Armstrong before him) to make some erroneous predictions about what the future holds.

In this latest example of his prophetic malpractice, Flurry pointed to Lebanon as being the catalyst for a future confrontation between the King of the North and the King of the South. He went on to identify Germany and her allies as constituting the modern manifestation of the King of the North, and Iran and her surrogates as the King of the South (Daniel 11). Based on this dubious interpretation, Mr. Flurry went on to predict that Germany and her allies would eventually triumph over the Iranian led forces.

Never mind that history and most biblical scholars have linked the King of the North with the Seleucid kings of Syria, and that those same sources have equated the King of the South with the Ptolemaic kings of Egypt. Never mind that these designations also make sense when one looks at their respective geographical locations relative the Holy Land (Egypt is South of Jerusalem and Syria is North of there). Iran, on the other hand, is due EAST of Jerusalem (it would be more appropriate to tag Iran as the King of the East). To be fair, Germany is located to the northwest of the Holy Land. So I guess it wouldn’t be too big of a stretch to ignore the western drift of this kingdom – we shouldn’t be too picky!

Even more interesting is Flurry’s justification for these designations. In his booklet entitled “The King of the South,” Flurry writes that “In 65 B.C., Syria was swallowed up by the ROMAN EMPIRE, and became a Roman province. The Roman emperor now controlled Judaea, and therefore the king of the north, here referred to, is, at this time, the emperor of the ROMAN EMPIRE.” Mr. Flurry conveniently failed to mention that Ptolemaic Egypt also became a part of the Roman Empire in 31 BC. So, according to this line of reasoning, shouldn’t we conclude that the Roman emperor also became the King of the South?

Hmmm, I have a prediction of my own to make:  Those folks who choose to swallow Gerald Flurry’s interpretations of Bible prophecy are going to be disappointed in the near future. His offerings may titillate a few of the aging and uniformed former adherents of Armstrongism, but I don’t think that they will get much attention from serious students of the Bible.