Change #2
Proverbs
10:22:
"The
blessing of the LORD, it makes rich, AND HE ADDS NO SORROW WITH IT!"
In 1940, one
thing we should glean from the 1940 Good Newsletter of Mr. Armstrong was that he
was not a dominant personality. He
sought council on many things and was quite teachable. As time progressed he encountered many bizarre aspects of
human nature. Time and experience
naturally harden most of us. Mr.
Armstrong quickly moved to legally take control of the corporate organizations
he raised up. Personal experience
showed that people would stop at nothing to take over what God raised up.
Even the men he trained were quite aggressive and constantly competed for
power and authority.
By the early 50s,
many of the young men he trained were coming into positions of authority and
were to have an everlasting effect upon the growing church. Some of these men were Kenneth Herrmann (about 29-30 when he
wrote his 1953 calendar article), Dr. Hoeh, Dr. Meredith, Raymond McNair, and
Ted Armstrong. These were all young
and zealous participants in the effort to get the gospel message out.
But, like most young men, their zeal was misguided.
Mr. Armstrong would have been 60 years of age.
Today (2003), Kenneth Herrmann (who became the church calendar expert)
would be 82. A few years ago he was
still affiliated with the Worldwide Church of God.
Somehow, total discernment is not something he evidently developed.
These young men had a major part to play in the development of the church
and apostate doctrines from 1953 onward. All
of these young men were in their early to mid twenties
Let’s examine
how God describes the shepherds in this end time scenario. It is important to realize that the trend is always to slide
into apostasy. The pull of the
broadcasts of Satan are just as real and continual as the gravitational forces
that keep us attached to this planet. Jesus
Christ describes a cycle, which continually occurs, within His church.
The parables He used to describe this recurring phenomenon will be
covered later in this study. God
inspired the Prophet Ezekiel to describe the ministers of His flocks in a
scathing description of the end time events.
Incidentally, this phenomenon is one of the trademarks that will point
out where the true church was located. This
group of called out individuals were truly attacked by Satan, especially from
within, just as prophecy foretold.
1 And the word of the
LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, prophesy
against the shepherds of Israel,
prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto
the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do
feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks?
3 Ye eat the fat, and
ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them
that are fed: but ye feed not the flock.
4 The diseased have ye
not strengthened, neither have ye
healed that which was sick,
neither have ye bound up that
which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which
was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost;
but with force and with cruelty
have ye ruled them.
5 And they were
scattered, because there is no shepherd:
and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when they
were scattered.
6 My sheep wandered
through all the mountains, and upon
every high hill: yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of
the earth, and none did search or seek after them.
7 Therefore, ye
shepherds, hear the word of the LORD;
8 As I live, saith the
Lord GOD, surely because my flock
became a prey, and my flock became meat to every beast of
the field, because there was no shepherd, neither did my
shepherds search for my flock, but
the shepherds fed
themselves, and fed not my
flock;
9 Therefore, O ye
shepherds, hear the word of the LORD;
10 Thus saith the Lord
GOD; Behold, I am against the
shepherds; and I will require my flock at their hand, and cause
them to cease from feeding the flock; neither shall the
shepherds feed themselves any more; for
I will deliver my flock
from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them.
Let’s move down the
timeline of church history forty years and examine how things were developing.
On, January 20, 1993 (forty years from 1953) Dr. Roderick C. Meredith
wrote a letter promoting his booklet "Church
Government and Church Unity." This
booklet was written for the Global Church of God.
On
page 2 of this letter Dr. Meredith wrote:
"So
please read this overview of Church Government with an open mind and heart. Yes,
many of us have made terrible mistakes in this area, including me. We have in
the past often been too strict, domineering and sometimes unfeeling in dealing
with others."
This is at best
an understatement of fact. When
they were all immature, twenty-some year-old evangelists, these new leaders made
some horrible mistakes! To his credit, it was very courageous of Dr. Meredith to acknowledge
this in a public letter.
These
"terrible mistakes" should tell us that these young leaders were
clearly not
being guided entirely
by God. In his own writings, during
the 50s and 60s, the years when they made those "terrible mistakes"
Dr. Meredith repeatedly appealed for authority to "THE FRUITS" which
the ministers were supposedly producing. Yet,
in his own words, a significant part of those fruits were described as
"terrible mistakes!"
At this point
let’s examine the booklet Dr. Meredith introduced with this letter. The
booklet in question is titled "Church Government and Church Unity."
If we go to page 3, under the subtitle: "Our Early
Discussions," Dr. Meredith wrote:
"Even after several years of guiding the college, Mr. Armstrong still did not understand much about Church Government, and said so openly a number of times.
Consequently,
in the early mid-1950's, Herman L. Hoeh and I each were inspired to write
articles along this line. As hundreds of our older brethren remember, I wrote
the article, "Judging and Discipline in God's Church" and, later,
"Whose Opinion Counts?" and one or two other similar articles."
I wonder if you
can grasp what Dr. Meredith is actually saying here? He is saying that Mr. Armstrong wasn't really the one to
develop all of the ideas about The Government of God theories at all.
Because, Mr. Armstrong "did not really understand “church
government" these doctrine had to be developed by these young evangelists
in their 20's-- Herman Hoeh, Roderick Meredith,Raymond McNair, and Ted
Armstrong. Additionally, Dr.
Meredith claims "INSPIRATION" for the development of these brutish
ideas. He then mentions two
specific articles he wrote.
It just never fails.
This is a perfect example of what to watch for.
There is always some minister or evangelist who gets up and will rant
about how he loved and respected Mr. Armstrong.
But!
He will always throw a cheap shot. This
is why it is important to really know church history.
It is just so presumptuous for Dr. Meredith to make this statement forty
years later. This is a perfect
example of the contempt and disrespect these important men actually developed
for Mr. Armstrong. On one hand they
will try to say they were his friend and admirer, but they will always insert a
putdown. It just never fails.
Just because some
minister or other speaker gets up in front and makes statements as if they were
true, does not make them true. By
1953 Mr. Armstrong knew what church government was all about.
He became educated real early in what silver-tongued ministers would do
when given the chance. Why, they
would do exactly what Dr. Meredith and others are trying to do.
They would try to gather the
congregation into their fold, thinking they were above Mr. Armstrong in
knowledge. If you truly know
church history, you will realize that Mr. Armstrong actually always controlled
the corporate structure the church would operate under.
To attempt to make a case that they knew more than Mr. Armstrong is
really a typical stunt you might expect from the Pharisees. It shows the jealousy involved in these men’s real motives.
For more information on this I suggest reading Volume 1 of the
autobiography of Herbert W. Armstrong.
These young
evangelists were permitted to develop the Government of God ideas that really
hurt a lot of people and invaded peoples’ lives.
Rather than dwell on this and reinvent the wheel, I will recommend a
study paper dealing with this topic, written with what I consider to be great
accuracy. The study paper is dated
March 2000 by Mr. Frank Nelte and titled “How
Much Did the Ministry Really Understand Back in the 1950's?”
This paper is made part of the Appendix section for reference. I consider this paper very accurate in many ways.
The church always had a lot of people problems.
He makes the point that we are farther behind now than in 1968.
I agree totally with him.
The scattering of
the holy people has produced one thing, a group of people who vote with their
money, and the ministry knows it. In
the January 31, 2003 issue of The Journal, one of the featured articles concerns
a COG weekend in Lexington that attracted 1,800 people.
The United Church of God sponsored this weekend and helped plan it.
To its credit, the UCG is providing a lot of service with these type
activities and is definitely getting participation from all over. This is a most positive point as the People of God have an
inborn need to get together in wholesome fellowship and have the ability to
appreciate other converted people. The
UCG has doctrinal problems and a questionable approach to major doctrinal
issues, but it has been able to actually serve people. In a few years the majority of the COG people will probably be
organized around the UCG because of this focus. They just will not put up with poor treatment anymore.
Part
22
The
Path to Submission.
What church history
shows, is that after 1953 the ugly head of Judaism, more particularly the
doctrines of the Pharisees was rearing its ugly head within the doctrines of the
church. Church government was
really modeled after oral traditions developed by younger, modern Pharisees.
Now Mr. Armstrong was ultimately responsible for what these young men
were doing, but he did become separated from the grass roots level of the
church. The zeal of these young men
in understanding that we needed to submit to the Jews when something was not
really spelled out in the Bible was really starting to build a head of steam.
This movement in the government was preparatory for the massive doctrinal
changes that were to occur starting in 1969.
This
final alignment of the church with Jewish thinking began with a misunderstanding
concerning the Jewish Calendar. The
original erroneous precepts were starting to grow and take over the thinking of
church leaders by 1953. The slide
into apostasy is a recurring phenomenon in God’s Church and this era was no
different. All too willingly,
people were allowing themselves to be led into a form of governance that was
unbiblical and abusive. It was just
so easy to not accept personal responsibility for a person’s own relationship
with Jesus Christ. It was just so
easy to think that by just following others you could lay the blame on others if
their ideas were wrong. The Bible
teaches one to overcome on a personal basis, and this does not include
submitting to modern Pharisees.
Rather than
reinvent the wheel on the topic of modern Pharisees, I will reference a most
interesting study paper by Dale D. Carmeon entitled,
The Oracles-The Plain Truth About Romans 3:2.
Mr. Frank Nelte has also written about this scripture and its
misapplication. A totally erroneous and fabricated explanation of this one
scripture, taken out of context, has been used to lead the church into an
apostate position regarding the Calendar and authority.
Many good study papers giving real light about this scripture have
appeared in the last few years. The
Journal, an independent newspaper giving information on news from
various COG groups, provides a format for these ideas to be made available to
the Churches of God. The truth
about this scripture has been long overdue.
As knowledgeable
authors like Mr. Carmeon and Frank Nelte continue to bring the truth about
difficult scriptures that have been misapplied to the attention of God’s
People, the stage will continue to be set for the replacement of the “frozen
chosen” with an honest and proper group of leaders to be in place before
Christ returns in the next several decades.
It is well known among many in the ministry and laity that Chapters 10
and 23 of the Book of Jeremiah and Chapter 34 of the Book of Ezekiel give a
scathing appraisal of the leaders of God’s Flock at the time of the end. Chapter 23 of the Book of Jeremiah is particularly applicable
to today’s leadership. It really
describes a number of these major players that helped lead the church into
apostasy.
Jeremiah 23:
1 Woe be unto the pastors that
destroy and scatter the
sheep of my pasture! saith
the LORD.
2 Therefore thus saith
the LORD God of Israel against the
pastors that feed my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and
driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will
visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the LORD.
3 And I will gather
the remnant of my flock out of all
countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again
to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase.
4 And I will set up
shepherds over them which shall feed
them: and they shall fear
no more, nor be dismayed, neither
shall they be lacking, saith the LORD.
5 Behold, the days
come, saith the LORD, that I will raise
unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and
prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.
6 In his days Judah
shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell
safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE
LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.
7 Therefore, behold,
the days come, saith the LORD, that
they shall no more say, The LORD liveth, which brought up
the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;
8 But, The LORD liveth,
which brought up and which led the
seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from
all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in
their own land.
9 Mine heart within me
is broken because of the prophets; all
my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a man
whom wine hath overcome, because of the LORD, and
because of the words of his holiness.
10 For the land is
full of adulterers; for because of swearing
the land mourneth; the pleasant places of the wilderness are
dried up, and their course is evil, and their force is not right.
11 For both prophet
and priest are profane; yea, in my
house have I found their wickedness, saith the LORD.
12 Wherefore their way
shall be unto them as slippery ways
in the darkness: they shall be driven on, and fall therein: for I
will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation, saith the LORD.
13 And I have seen
folly in the prophets of Samaria; they
prophesied in Baal, and caused my people Israel to err.
14 I have seen also in
the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible
thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen
also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his
wickedness; they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the
inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.
15 Therefore thus
saith the LORD of hosts concerning the
prophets; Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make
them drink the water of gall: for from the prophets of
Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land.
Yes, prophecy is an
important Gift of the Spirit as Paul explained, that goes with the spiritual
Gift of Healing. It is no secret
that the Worldwide Church of God totally
lacked this spiritual gift. Now you
would think that any organization that lacked the gift of prophecy and was limited on the manifestation of the gift
of healing would question their approach when the fruits showed they were
going down the wrong path. But no!
Once the younger leaders emerging in the early 50s, started down the path
toward aligning the church with Jewish thinking, they just kept rushing toward
that goal, oblivious to the carnage around them.
An analysis of the real fruits of the church after 1969 shows a
disturbing pattern. Just because
Dr. Meredith and others continually say their fruits show real growth and
blessing does not make it a fact. The reality is that there was a lot of problems starting to
emerge after 1968 and they are only getting bigger. It is quite well known that Dr. Hoeh introduced the flawed
Meton cycle as a basis for analyzing prophecy and making predictions.
The church’s 1975 prophetic expectations are a prime example of this
error.
However, these
old theories are alive and well today. The
traditional Government of God ideas are still used in the ministry despite what
Dr. Meredith says about recognizing mistakes.
Mark this well! Nothing has
changed. There has just been lip
service to pacify the laity. The
fruits of a brutish government are proof of where the modern Pharisees really
are today. If you are aligned with
a group that has a ministry constantly trying to focus you on a Government of
God theory, you better watch out. If
you are a young person and have parents who seems to try and interfere, and
micromanage you life, that is one thing. To
allow strangers the same privilege is a real mistake.
The entire 23rd Chapter of the Book of Jeremiah is an ancient
prophecy everyone should read and meditate upon many times.
If this prophecy does not adequately describe the spiritual condition of
many of the leaders of God’s Church in the late 60s and early 70s I do not
know what does.
Again,
the United Church of God has emerged as a leader in trying to change brutish
government. For the past year there
has been turmoil in the United Kingdom branch of this international
organization. To the credit of the
UCG, they removed Mr. John Jewels from his position of authority.
Naturally, he threw a tantrum and left the organization when he could not
have his authority and large paycheck. The
UCG took a long time doing it but they did do it, they actually removed him and
justified a large contingent of the membership he abused and disfellowshipped.
Just like Mr. Armstrong finally threw his son out of the church
organization, the UCG eventually removed a very undesirable leader.
Further, to the credit of the UCG, they have published an accounting of
this horrible experience and promoted the people affected to share in The
Journal, their experience with others Church of God people.
Part 23
The doctrines
examined in this study in their traditional forms are clear losers.
The use of the Jewish Calendar to schedule the appointed times is
basically a proposal in search of justification.
First, it was pawned off as being highly biblical, only to be changed to
a faith issue when obvious flaws were pointed out.
As the accumulation of information showing this system as just a product
of Jewish thinking grows, more and more people are deciding to change to a
system better reflecting the biblical principles Mr. Armstrong declared for
scheduling the appointed times in 1940. There
really is no substitute for the Bible as the final authority when dealing with
God’s People.
Likewise,
the brutish government theories have failed the biblical test. All of these ideas that have their roots in Jewish thinking
are presently being rethought and discarded by the scattered People of God
today. Most of these people really
are serious about doing things right and according to accurate doctrine.
It has just taken a scattering to get them to focus on information that
will put them back on the right track.
As God’s People
come to realize how deeply they have submitted to the Pharisees, they will
repent. Somewhere in the near
future and new leadership, more attuned to God’s Way of life will emerge just
prior to the return of Jesus Christ. The
topics of the Jewish Calendar and Government have gone through the church like a
wildfire. These ideas have had a
profound effect upon the church and it will never be the same.
Let’s consider again what Jesus Christ said about true versus false
doctrine, and how it affects His people. Make
no mistake, Christ will find out what you really think one way or another.
Matthew 10:
32 Whosoever therefore
shall confess me before men, him
will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.
33 But whosoever shall
deny me before men, him will I also
deny before my Father which is in heaven.
34 Think
not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came
not to send peace, but a sword.
35 For I am come to
set a man at variance against his father,
and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law
against her mother in law.
36 And a man's foes
shall be they of his own household.
37 He that loveth
father or mother more than me is not
worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than
me is not worthy of me.
When you are faced with
doubts about using the Jewish Calendar or what is the right form of government,
you better know what the Pharisees thought.
You might follow the crowd and go in the wrong direction.
Part
24
So far we have
examined several doctrinal topics that have been taught based upon
misunderstanding and flawed premises. Despite
historical proof to the contrary, these doctrines just continue to be promoted.
This is because the Pharisees have always had their ideas and agenda.
It is recognized that about 60 AD the Pharisees totally wrested the
political control of the temple from what was left of the priestly sector of
Judaism. Does it not seem ironic
and most appropriate, that God allowed, actually promoted the Chaldeans to sack
and destroy this temple very quickly after this group of Pharisees came to
absolute power? Likewise, the
church has been scattered and the temple taken down for allowing modern
rabbinical thinking to permeate the doctrines of the church.
The doctrinal topics analyzed so far are preliminary ideas that once in
place, permitted the launching of a massive move to align the church with
Jewish, rabbinical thinking.
The first
doctrinal mistake was the continued use of the Jewish Calendar, once the
leadership realized its obvious flaws in the 60s.
God is not mocked. If He
shows you something, you are expected to perform and the leadership failed to
perform and straighten out flawed doctrine.
By the late 60s “The
Work,” the need to “Preach the Gospel,” had taken on a life of its own. This directive would be protected at any cost by the
leadership. This commission is
indeed important, but it does not supercede truth.
It is a common mistake to fall into the trap of failing to overcome once
you focus on the goal of works. There
is an underlying biblical requirement to always-base works on truth and
overcoming. God cannot and will not
call new people into a “spiritual deathtrap.”
They have to have the proper environment to grow.
The degree to
which Jewish, rabbinical thinking has infiltrated the church is everywhere.
Take for example, one of the scriptures Promoters of the Jewish Calendar
have used to make their defense.
1
Chronicles 12:
32 And of the children
of Issachar, which were men that had
understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do;
the heads of them were two hundred; and all their brethren
were at their commandment.
This scripture is
used to show that the Men of Issachar supposedly were experts at calculating the
calendar. Now where did the church
get this remarkable understanding?
Why, they got this
interpretation from the Jews, of course. Previously
in this study quotes from the Talmud show this to be the Jewish interpretation
of this scripture. But, is this an
accurate interpretation? Can you see how the church formulates doctrine when they do
not understand a scripture? They go
to the Pharisees, the Talmud, to get ideas.
They do just like ministers have explained to me, they submit to the
authority and knowledge of the Jews when something is not clearly explained in
the New Testament.
The Jewish
interpretation of scripture is basically the ideas of Pharisees.
It may or may not have any credibility.
I would submit to the reader that the aforementioned interpretation of 1
Chroncles 12:32 may be convenient, but it is really stretching scripture.
The context of the scripture is embedded in a chapter detailing the final
stages of the overthrow of the dynasty of Saul.
Just as God had proclaimed, the House of David was replacing The House of
Saul. This event fulfilled the scriptures of Genesis 49 where the
scepter is eventually promised to the Tribe of Judah. I believe a better explanation of the scripture might be that
the Men of Issachar had political savvy. They
could comprehend the times and how specific prophecy was being fulfilled.
No, I cannot prove that, but Chapter 12 of the Book of 1 Chronicles does
deal with political science more than calculating the Jewish Calendar or
scheduling God’s appointed times as He reveals in the Bible.
If I were with Tonto, and he were to ask me what it all meant to me. I would say: After examining all of the facts, that I would expect to find just what we see today in the various splinter groups of the Churches of God. God is a jealous god. He is not a respecter of persons. I would not expect to see any healing in the Churches of God. I would expect to see them blindly staggering about searching for healing, and wandering in a Spiritual Wilderness, yet not having any idea what the biblical doctrine of healing really is all about. I would expect to see them drowning in sorrow, while claiming to be blessed. I would expect to see them blindly staggering from one prophetic idea to the next, wishing for the destruction of the world. I would not expect to see the spiritual Gift of Prophecy in any sector of these splinter groups. That is what it means to me! Methinks, that is exactly what I see.