Usually I wouldn’t mention Gerald Flurry. On one hand, he has pushed the PCG so far into the lunatic fringe that nothing is surprising. And I feel commenting the PCG membership (except in pity) is like mocking the handicapped. And my apologies to the handicapped – one having impairment cannot be equated to those who are willingly deluded.
But I recently recalled something Gerry spouted some years ago in a “personal appearance” campaign that I thought I’d mention. With a condescending chuckle, Ol’ Sixpack declared that the founders of the modern state of Israel were mistaken; they should have named their country Judah. He apparently was looking through his Anglo-Israel colored glasses when making this comment, which actually contradicted the old WCG position (no surprise there) on the country’s name.
Without arguing the two kingdoms period and the number of people who fled from the northern tribes to Judah compared to the number transported, the answer is quite simple: the territory is still “eretz Israel”, the Land of Israel.
I still remember hearing GTA (on The World Tomorrow) explain “Jew” and “Israel”: “the Jews were at war with Israel”. Any biblical use of “Jew” would mean a descendent of Judah, or an inhabitant of Judah or Judea. On the other hand, the idea of “Jew” in the Bible referring to one who observed Judaism is an anachronism. But, I’ve heard Jewish rabbis and teachers call Moses and Abraham “Jews”. Here, for lack of better term, Jew is used to mean a follower of Judaism. But again, this is an anachronism, as the foundations of modern Judaism lie, at their earliest, in the Second Temple period.
With Bob Thiel’s latest dismal predictions for the US currency, and Gerry’s renewed fervor over Petra, a new medium of exchange may be prudent. To stave off bartering with fellow cave dwellers, PCG could start minting Petradollars, their own answer to Bitcoin!