Philadelphia Church of God and the Place of Safety

Brief History of the Place of Safety:

Herbert W. Armstrong taught that the “Place of Safety” was going to be Petra, a wilderness area in Jordan where qualified members would remain for 3 l/2 years in caves, during “the Great Tribulation” and “the horrors of World War III.”

While HWA would always cover himself by adding that “we don’t know for sure where the place of safety will be” and “we shouldn’t get our minds on a physical place of safety” (as Gerald Flurry is fond of saying), there were sermons, Bible studies and articles over the years about it.

To Just Mention a Few:

Herman L. Hoeh (former evangelist in the Worldwide Church of God; deceased since 2004) wrote an article in the June 1963 Plain Truth entitled “If World War III comes–There is a Way of Escape!” Hoeh also wrote, “This is PETRA!” in The Good News, April 1962, implying that Petra would be the “place of safety.” The article included a number of photos of Petra. Hoeh directed the question to members as to whether they were going to believe God “no matter where He revealed they should go and no matter by what route.” He said God’s will was to be revealed to “God’s ministers” alone (the same as Flurry teaches). This place of safety was only for those who remained faithful and obedient to the “government of God” (i. e. HWA and Headquarters).

The October 1963 Worldwide Church of God Good News had a full picture of Petra on the front cover. The article, which was authored by David Jon Hill,1 was entitled, “PETRA!” It told how Petra had “no water,” and “no visible food supply,” but “plenty of caves.” Along with several pictures, this article talked about what a member’s “attitude” should be toward the “place of safety” and that having “complete faith in God” was going to be the “only real protection” after they arrived there, and if they couldn’t have absolute faith in God NOW for everything, they simply wouldn’t be there. The date members of the WCG were to flee to this “place of safety” was January 7, 1972 (which was considered the end of a “19-year time cycle”). (Refer to Chap. 5, “Mystery of Israel,” in “Mystery of the Ages (a critical review)” by Kelly Marshall. (PDF)

Richard Frankel gave a Worldwide Church of God sermon in 1980 where he stated:

“We see very, very clearly that the Bible very strongly–very, very strongly–indicates that Petra is the place that God is going to protect His church.” He went on to say that “God is going to take His people and put them to an intensive training course for 3 l/2 years.” He said condominiums were going to be built by the Jordanians (which the privileged leaders would stay in?), but he also talked about how members would remodel the caves and area and that there would be “a school system that works,” “a college that works,” “churches and congregations,” and “a sewer system.” He said everyone will have to go to Ambassador College and Ambassador Club “whether you like it or not!” And after 3 l/2 years members “will be ready to take over the reigns of government” (in this world). (Richard Frankel, WCG sermon, “Petra,” Nov. 8, 1980.)

In July 1995 members were told there are “strong indications” that Petra will probably be the place they will flee to and, “there is no place on earth like Petra. I know of no other region that would be a better place to protect God’s people from nuclear warfare.”2

In 1992 Gerald Flurry said:

“God’s very elect will be taken to a place of safety.”3

During the feast in 1998, members were shown the video “Behind the Work” in which there was much emphasis on Petra.4
Safety

Gerald Flurry and the Place of Safety:

Philadelphia Church of God claims to follow all of Herbert Armstrong’s teachings and likewise causes members to focus on a place of safety.

Gerald Flurry has made it clear that “only those who finish God’s Work are to be taken to a place of safety.”5

He has even referred to it as their “ticket” by saying: “Backing and supporting this message is your ticket to a place of safety and a magnificent reward.”6

In 2002 Flurry said: “Mount Paran is probably within the area where the place of safety will be. Petra is in this vicinity.”7

In a May 1, 2004 sermon, Flurry said, “God may be giving a special protection to the nation of Jordan. Is it because that is where God’s people will be protected during the Tribulation? … Is God going to take us to a place of safety there? It sure looks like that to me.”

In Flurry’s 2005 booklet (Jude – The Most Urgent Prophecy Yet for This End Time!) he refers (as did HWA from the 1930s on) to a “coming holocaust just ahead of us.” The cover on this booklet depicts the shadow of an adult leading a child by the hand and gives the impression that they are fleeing for their lives from impending doom. Notice some quotes: [bolding ours]

“We are getting very close to the time when we will be taken to a place of safety, as was the church in A.D. 70.”

“God’s church again will have to be delivered to a place of safety.”

“‘And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands [10,000] of his saints’ (Jude 14). … This verse ties in with Deuteronomy 33:1-2, which speaks of 10,000 saints coming from Mount Paran, located in Petra, Jordan. It is a prophecy about Christ personally bringing His people back from a place of safety in the end-time. This, too, shows the time frame of Jude’s message. This book is aimed at the PCG today!”

In order to keep from appearing too dogmatic about Petra being the “place of safety,” he sometimes writes as he did in his revised 2000 booklet, The Key of David: [bolding ours]

“Munitions of rocks is better translated strongholds of Sela, referring to the famous city of Petra. This rock fortress has been used over past centuries as a well-defended stronghold. It is the perfect place for God to protect His people from nuclear fallout and other dangers of nuclear war. Still, we don’t know for certain where that place of safety will be.”

In a sermon on May 1, 2004 he said:

“Is God going to take us to a place of safety there? [Jordan] It sure looks like that to me.”

In June 25, 2021 article he said:

“When God’s Work publicizes the truth with amplified power in the midst of escalating national crises, the land simply won’t be able to bear it. That is when these national powers will expel God’s people! Then God will take His very elect to a place of safety.”8

Memories About Petra:

However, PCG members still believe they will be going to Petra. See our article: Memories About Petra which shows what WCG members were taught by Herbert Armstrong about this “place of safety” in Jordan (and which is very similar to what PCG members are being taught.) Footnote #3 in that article gives the full quote from HWA’s July 16, 1982 Co-Worker letter and how he said to “GET YOUR MINDS OFF PETRA“). At the end of the article the following topics are briefly covered: “Why Was Petra Chosen as the Place of Safety?” “WCG and the Place of Safety Teaching,” “HWA’s Duplicitous Statements on the Place of Safety,” and “Certain Splinter Groups and Offshoots Continue Same Teaching.”

Dying for Their Faith:

PCG members are exhorted to be “willing to die” for their faith. One example follows: [bolding ours]

“And Christ wants to know what His wife’s going to do. Do you really LOVE ME? DO YOU LOVE ME, God says, ARE YOU PHILADELPHIANS? Philadelphians do. Laodiceans don’t. And they’ll die for God. That’s certainly what they’ll do, if that is required.” (“Disfellowshipping in God’s Family of Love,” Sermon by Gerald Flurry, January 3, 1998)

“When we were baptized, we covenanted with God that we would be willing to give up our own life—our blood—if it was required (Luke 14:25-26). This is also a small part of the reason it is a covenant of blood. We too must have a total commitment to this majestic covenant with God—even to the point of shedding our blood.” (Zechariah–The Sign of Christ’s Imminent Return, 2010, Chap. 7, by Gerald Flurry)

Of course, “dying for their faith,” has also included turning down necessary medical treatment.
In this same sermon (when later referring to Malachi 3:16-17) Flurry said:

“God says that He is going to take them to a place of safety.” (Ibid.)

At the Feast of Tabernacles in 2000, in his “Ezekiel and the Sons of Zadok” messages, Flurry talked about the date of January 16, 2010 “probably” being the start of the Great Tribulation and that he wanted members to “really watch that date.” (See article: Excerpts From Gerald Flurry’s Sermons (or Flurry’s Vegetable Patch) under “Calls God’s People Vegetables.”)

In November 8, 2001 sermon on 2 & 3 John he said, “I’m telling you we are in the last hour.”

Again in 2003, he figured January 16, 2010 could be the start of the Great Tribulation or some other disaster to happen. (January 16 is the month and day that Herbert W. Armstrong died in 1986 and is considered an important date to members. It is also considered the end of another “19-year time cycle.”)

Frequently Changed When Last Hour Is:

Gerald Flurry has frequently changed when the “last hour” is to begin; i.e, 2000 letter to ESN where he said May 5, 2001 was the start of the “last hour” and 2009 letter to ESN which tells about his “last hour” dates and how 2001 was when he first brought out about the “last hour.”

Flurry has always told his members they may have a little more time to “finish the Work,” but at the same time he continually emphasizes that “time is running out.” Notice his words:

“We have only ‘minutes’ left to do God’s work of warning the world.” (Jude, 2005)

“Is it outrageous to think we could be only five years away from when armies will surround the ‘city of peace?” (Royal Vision, March-April 2005)

“[We are] specifically in the last hour of the last end of the Matthew 24 end of the latter days.” (The Last Hour, 2004)

“We are in the last hour—only a tiny little span of time to finish this Work.” (Dear Brethren and Co-Workers in Christ Letter, 2/2/04)

“…we are awfully close to the Tribulation!” (Co-Worker letter, 8/13/08)

Flurry’s warning (which is identical to HWA’s) is that only those who are involved in “the Work of God” (i. e., loyal to PCG Headquarters) with their focus on the Kingdom of God will be taken to the “place of safety” and the others (considered Laodiceans) will be left behind to burn in the “fires of nuclear war.”

“These prophecies are going to become so devastating that God is going to take the Philadelphia Church of God to a place of safety to save their lives…The Laodiceans will die in the Great Tribulation discussed in Matthew 24:21.” (Lamentations and the End-Time Laodiceans by Gerald Flurry, 1993, p. 2)

“And one day, we will flee to God to take us to a place of safety from the Great Tribulation. … The Laodiceans have lost that stronghold. God is not going to protect them from the Great Tribulation.” (Ezekiel The End-Time Prophet by Gerald Flurry, 2002, p. 99)

Yet he continues to build buildings on his land and to coerce members into “donating to the building fund.” Construction on a Hall of Administration began in 2004 and plans were finalized in 2005 for an Armstrong Auditorium (also called a “House for God”) to be built on 170 acres. In January 2008, PCG broke ground for this building and when it was finally finished in 2010 it was said to cost $20 million. [Update: In 2012 Flurry told the members that the building actually cost $25 million because they had not included the cost of landscaping. (December 26, 2012 letter to ESN)]

Flurry stated in his August 26, 2004 co-worker letter that the “physical abomination” (of Daniel 8 and 12) was “almost certain to occur in less than a decade!”

In a July 26, 2008 sermon at PCG’s Philadelphia Youth Camp (PYC), he said he believed the Tribulation would be here “in five years or less.”

In a sermon on August 9, 2008, he said the Tribulation “would begin in around five years.”

Previously he said the end would come in 2008. Read: Flurry Formerly Said End Would Be in 2008.

A sermon was given on January 31, 2009: “Preparing to Go To the Place of Safety.”

In 2009 in the March-April 2009 Royal Vision, he said, “After all, we are going to be sharing that throne with Christ in a matter of just a few years!”

In April 2010, in a sermon, Gerald Flurry changed his mind again and extended the “last hour” for another decade.

In 2017 in the July-August Royal Vision, Gerald Flurry said he had “new revelation” about the book of Hebrews and that “we might be about three years from going to the place of safety.” (This sentence was later removed from his 2019 booklet “The Book of Hebrews.”)

The January 2019 Philadelphia Trumpet has Gerald Flurry saying, “The Second Coming of Jesus Christ, the greatest event ever, will happen in six to 10 years, as I calculate it.”

While Flurry has stated in 2008 that there must be 10,000 members before they flee to the “place of safety” PCG’s membership has been declining from the 7,000 they claimed several years ago, and in 2009 is now closer to 5,000 or less, with approximately 3,800 baptized members. Today many local congregations are reported to be only between 10 and 25 members. They have closed down some small congregations with the members now traveling to larger ones. Members continue to exit.

Flurry Changes Place of Safety to Adullam:

In 2018 Flurry said the place of safety was now in Adullam. (Read 2018 PCG letter to ESN: The Place of Safety is Now in Adullam.)

One Way Ticket?

In a June 2013 sermon Cal Culpepper (“Come Out of This World”)13 stated, “Do we really think it is going to be that easy? There’s a lot of details that we don’t know yet. We are going to be packing our bags–it will be an act of faith. We don’t know how it will be. Maybe the government will give us a one way ticket.”

So now we need to ask another question:

Do we think the government is actually going to let Gerald Furry leave the country with a bunch of money? Even if he tries to place it all in offshore accounts, wouldn’t he be watched? (More extreme, fanatical groups are being watched today since the Jim Jones and David Koresh tragedies.)

We need to realize that these stories members are hearing about HQs fleeing “first,” or skipping the country and leaving the members behind, usually turn out to be lies or wild guesses, or a rumor handed down from someone higher up the pyramid.14

PCG believes they will be persecuted in the future. They believe “the Work” will finally end and armies will surround Jerusalem. It is at this time that they believe it will be time to “flee.”15 Herbert Armstrong preached this same fear doctrine for decades. No one ever fled anywhere. Members simply continued to pay in more and more money, as PCG members are doing.

No One Fled Anywhere:

HWA, for decades, predicted end-time scenarios and talked of a “place of safety.” When every one of his WW II prophecies failed, he said his “timing was wrong” but they would be fulfilled in the “next war”–WW III. In the meantime he convinced his co-workers and members that a college needed to be built. When his later prophecies also failed–especially the 1972 one–he merely said God had given them “more time to do the Work” and shifted their attention. Flurry will undoubtedly say something similar.

As Gerald Flurry continues to use the “place of safety” ploy the same way HWA did, members will fear to leave PCG lest they be left to go through the Great Tribulation. Leaving PCG, in their minds, is the same as “leaving God.” Flurry tells them, “Fear of God must always be with us.”16 But this is the wrong kind of fear. It is the fear of a man whom they are unknowingly putting between themselves and the Lord Jesus Christ. They do not know they have been deceived, as countless thousands before them were deceived by the false teacher and false prophet Herbert Armstrong.

By D. M. Williams
Exit & Support Network™
December 2, 2005
Last updated June 30, 2021

Recommended Letters:

Are We in the Tribulation? (May 6, 2020 letter)

Non-PCG Members Can Go to Place of Safety?? (March 3, 2017 letter)

NOTE: To read some of the Bible verses WCG used to justify Petra as the Place of Safety, see the footnotes in Memories of Petra. When GF’s predictions fail, he always says that Christ is “holding back events to get His church (PCG) ready.” HWA stated practically the same thing.