Chapter 4: 

I John 2:17 (NKJV) And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he (or she) who does the will of God abides forever.

I John 4:1 (NKJV) Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

3 John 11 (NKJV) Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good.  He who does good is of God, but he who does evil has not seen God.

CHAPTER 4:   Atomization of the Churches of God

 Winston Churchill is quoted as saying, “Blind indeed is the soul who cannot see that a great purpose is being worked out here below.”  Of course, Mr. Churchill was referring to what he saw as the role of Britain and America in the world.  He had a vision and it included a divine purpose for Britain, that being to civilize the world and make it a better place to live.

 Likewise, blind indeed would be the ministers of the Churches of God, and laity for that matter, who cannot see a great purpose is being worked out here below.  First, it is easy to grasp the vision of our Incredible Human Potential.  It has been spelled out to us for decades.  We in the true church understand that our purpose is to grow in grace and knowledge and eventually become the very Bride of Christ and be born into the Divine God Family.  We are not to be born as just angels but on a higher plane, equivalent in stature but not authority to God.  We are to be born as full family members with our older brother Jesus Christ and God the Father.

 But there is another great purpose being worked out on the earth today that is adversarial in nature to the purpose of God.  That adversarial purpose is one of deception and is administered by Satan and his demons.  Their purpose is to tear you away from the your natural family and deceive you into making choices that will alienate you from The God Family.  They have been working at this since the beginning.  So successful were they in deceiving people that at one point all life had to be terminated upon the earth save the life in Noah’s Ark.  Satan’s ministers teach a way of life contrary to God’s Way.  Their primary instrument for doing this is to get you to start deciding for yourself what is right and what is wrong.  Satan tricks you into accepting his standards of righteousness, not God’s.  The tricky part is this way, can seem right.  It will look good, feel good, taste good, and sound good. 

 God has a way, a system that has as its primary purpose the preservation of families.  This system will secure family relationships through the life and death of many generations.  This system was designed to be tribal in nature.  The inheritance of families was to stay within a tribe.  But the twelve tribes were to function in unity as a nation.  Now this is indeed a foreign concept to people today.  That is natural, it was a foreign concept to human nature in The Wilderness and later in the Promised Land.  God’s concepts have always been foreign to most people.  People were to stay apart in a tribal sense, yet function in unity as a nation.  This was a foreign concept then.  As the recent fragmentation of the Churches of God show, it is still a foreign concept to the self-appointed leaders of some four-hundred different splinter groups.

 Make no mistake about it, God puts the blame upon those who claim to lead.  Jeremiah 10, Jeremiah 23, and Ezekiel 33 are only some of the chapters in the Old Testament which show that self-professing shepherds are actually wolves among the People of God.  This is a major theme of Paul and John in the New Testament also.  Tares are allowed to coexist with the People of God.

 God’s Vision for Retirement

 Let’s see how God’s system was supposed to work.  First we need to examine Proverbs 13:22. 

Proverbs 13:22 (NKJV) A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children.

 In its most simple analysis, God envisioned a system that encouraged adults to dream of retiring among family.  Before Social Security and the coming of the American Dream in the 50s, most Americans secured their retirement through savings, property ownership, and family.

 Today, government programs take care of all of this.  They free adults from the responsibility God has ordained of them toward their children.  Likewise, government programs free children of their responsibility toward their parents.  If you examine the many stories of the Old Testament a common theme will emerge.  The patriarchs established their children within a tribal structure.  Young people did not just leave home and make it on their own.  In The Wilderness, even if a young woman was wed to a young man from another tribe, when they camped it was not impossible to walk to the other side and visit her parents.  Everyone knew where family members were.  There was strong interdependence and this is consistent with the theme in the New Testament describing the church.  The body is meant to be one.  A finger dislodged will not get blood.  It will just wither and die.

 In contrast, the present economic system and government consciously promotes the elderly to “sell the farm” so to speak.  They are encouraged retire, move to Arizona and let the kids fend for themselves.  The purpose is to make the offspring responsible adults and to not meddle or micromanage their lives.  The result is nursing homes where the children have forgotten their God ordained responsibilities to their parents.  In a subtle but sneaky way, Satan has succeeded in introducing a system that teaches young people to dishonor and show disrespect toward their parents.  Naturally, this is against God’s laws.  And if you perfect these lawless principles in dating, betrothal, and eventually marriage, you will reap the reward you justly deserve.

 It is common for young people to want to be out on their own after marriage for a period of time.  Now this sounds good and has an element of truth.  But, truth is categorical.  There are various levels of truth.  In today’s society, if you cannot make a living you can go to the Salvation Army.  Also there are government programs to help with health care if you cannot pay.  If your husband leaves you stranded, you and your children probably will not starve, at least in America.  But in the time of ancient Israel if you took your bride and went wandering off to make your own stake in life; you would probably be killed by hostile gentiles.  At best, you would become a slave for life or your wife would be confined to a brothel.  The rewards for independent thinkers were not the best available.

 Likewise, today if young people go wandering off without parental support, they may not survive their search for independence and the American Dream.  In most of the world, a woman detached from her family without a husband is in a lot of trouble.  She will be a slave in a brothel until she gets too old and is then terminated.  In most of the gentile world, young girls are sold by their parents to sex syndicates. Satan’s way can be very hard for women.

 Under Satan’s retirement system, the inheritance is consumed within government programs and redistributed elsewhere, probably gentiles.  Satan really hates Israelites.  It would be a blind soul indeed who cannot see that this system, the one we have right now in our country, has a lot of flaws.  It continues to promote greed and self-centered people.  This system is one we all live in.  It is hard not to separate the thinking it promotes from the lives of the youth in God’s Church, especially if ministers and parents passively promote this World’s lifestyle.

 Everywhere, the theme of two people falling in love and making it work permeates the television and movies.  Heroes are independent, callous supermen who never get tied down.  When they have seen it all, done it all, and are somewhat ready, they return home and their true love is still waiting to give them a family.  In the meantime she has to save up so her husband-to-be can invest her savings properly and start his own business, when he eventually decides to settle down.  No traveling for her, she has her place in society.  Heroes have their cake and eat it too.  Such is the image of the American Dream.  Everywhere, and in all colleges the principles of teaching people to make adult decisions thrive.  The bookstands are full of books by self-help experts.  Such is the influence generations of young people in the Church of God have grown up with.  Where has it all led us?

 Whether we like it or not, God has not changed his mind.  He is the same yesterday, today and forever.  Let’s prove this for ourselves from the scriptures, not human reasoning.  This vision is expressed in Chapter 37 of the book of Ezekiel  

Ezekiel 37:16-21"As for you, son of man, take a stick for yourself and write on it: "For Judah and for the children of Israel, his companions.' Then take another stick and write on it, "For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel, his companions.' 17Then join them one to another for yourself into one stick, and they will become one in your hand.  18"And when the children of your people speak to you, saying, "Will you not show us what you mean by these?'-- 19say to them, "Thus says the Lord GOD: "Surely I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel, his companions; and I will join them with it, with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they will be one in My hand."' 20And the sticks on which you write will be in your hand before their eyes.  21"Then say to them, "Thus says the Lord GOD: "Surely I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, wherever they have gone, and will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land; 22and I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king

over them all; they shall no longer be two nations, nor shall they ever be divided into two kingdoms again.

 Yes, God’s vision has never changed.  He will bring Israel back and organize them forever around one nation in unity.  There will be twelve tribes, but one nation ruled over by King David in unity.  They will be organized around a government, the twelve gates of Jerusalem named for each tribe.

 Basically, God’s way of life is one of integration and it does continue today.  It is to continue within the families of the true church.  It is not supposed to be a system of disintegration, rather one of integration.  Families and by association, dating, betrothal, and marriage are under laws which integrate.  God’s Government begins at home, in YOUR family, not some self-appointed leadership.  Your family has authority over you and as a sibling you need to appreciate that family.  Remember, God is watching.  Chances are, that if you are dating someone who is creating doubts about that relationship, you had better be careful.  You may be setting yourself up to become The Forlorn Hope.

 Disintegration

Disintegration is a process Satan uses to break up races, nations, tribes, and families.  At this time in the world we can easily see two systems at work, that of globalization and the other of tribalism.  Principles of globalization unite nations, so the focus of this study will be on tribalism.  Jesus spoke about wars and rumors of wars in Matt. 24:3.  These wars are simply tribal in nature.  All one has to do is look at the present world scene.  Afghanistan is a case study in tribal conflicts.  A reversion to tribal identities exist in Canada, Russia, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, India, and even the United States.  In tribalism, individuals look not to the unifying norms of a nation but to those described by a small ethnic or religious group.

 Does that not perfectly describe the fragmentation of the Churches of God?  Fragmentation is one part of the larger, more extended process of disintegration.  If one views fragmentation as a broken mirror, fragmentation and disintegration takes place at the same time.  But sociology is a science, which has documented how fragmentation takes many years, even decades to run its course in nations.

 Basically there are four recognized parts of the fragmentation of a society.  First is Disengagement.  Disengagement is when people slowly, over time have an emotional and psychological separation from another person or group.  In the Church of God, the process of disengagement involves forsaking of assembling together among other things.

 Fragmentation occurs when an individual actually breaks off from another person or group.  This happens when the person no longer identifies himself with the goals and purposes of a church organization or family.  Does this sound familiar?

 Scattering occurs when a person actually moves away from a group to another geographical area.  The final stage of the disintegration process is when an organization, tribe, or family totally disbands, becoming no longer viable. 

 What a shame!  Can you see this process at work in your own family?  The God designed and ordained basic building bock of society is constantly under the pressures of disintegration in our society.  What a hideous sin it is to participate in this process!  Do you find yourself no longer identifying with your family’s goals and purposes?  If so what has changed your mind?  Is it a biblical reason?  The example of Korah and his rebellion is one of the primary examples of tribalism and several leaders’ attempts to return to it.  Make no mistake, the Old Testament is a great case-study of tribalism and the countertide of disintegration that it brings to a society.  Identifying with a tribe rather than a nation is not looked upon with favor in God’s eyes.  The Bible presents a case-study on what God thinks of people who develop a narrow, tribal identification at the expense of a unified nation.  The same principles apply to a family.

 Remember, Mr. Armstrong used to stress government.  Yes, it is an issue of government in God’s eyes.  Young people need to understand that when they start to disengage from their family it is usually a slow process.  If you have a good family that has given you everything they can, it is usually the result of a slow but persistent, and evil influence that brings this on.  To get to the point, the person you are dating is usually that influence.  When they cause you to fragment and scatter to another geographical areas, this is not God’s way.  Young people need to understand that.  This usually does not happen because of job necessity by itself.  If you follow through with the disintegration process, you need to understand the consequences because you will reap what you sow, a curse rather than a blessing.  When prospective mates cause you to disengage from your natural family, you are following Satan’s influence.

 If disintegration and fragmentation does not describe the condition of our society today, I do not know what does.  God uses three primary metaphors to describe the effects of unrestrained tribalism: Vomiting or Spewing from the Mouth, Scattering of Sheep, and Sifting of Grain.  All of these have a purpose and place.  Sifting refers to a testing and categorization process.  Scattering Sheep refers to the process of divine punishment or in the case of the scattering of the power of the holy people, scattering them for their own protection from being in the presence of a predator (wolf).  But Vomiting and Spewing is most dramatic.  How about it young folks?  Would you like to be Spewed out of God’s mouth for the way you treat your family and respect your parents.  Do you want to be Vomited out because you would rather follow someone cute than obey your parents?

 If you do not want to be Spewed out, you need to understand there are laws which work automatically.  If you violate them, you will develop a way of thinking that will automatically lead you into an atmosphere of being cursed.  When God says Honor and Respect your parents, this does not have a time limit.  You had better understand there is no statute of limitations here.  The command is simple, and basic. 

Build Your Home on a Solid Foundation

 In Chapter 3 we discovered that you have to choose to make your house a home.  What kind of home are you building in your family?  In services we sing Psalm 127, or at least a version of it. 

Psalm 127:1 Unless the Lord builds the house, They labor in vain who build it.  Unless the Lord guards the city, The watchman stays awake in vain.

 What kind of house are you building in your dating and betrothal relationships?  Be careful, you might have to live in it.  The Bible reveals that you need to build your future house upon a carefully laid foundation.  This requires planning and thinking.  You need to build your house upon a two-legged foundation involving two families, not just one or part of one.  Anything less and you are not going to have the home you think you will.  Any building contractor knows that the cornerstone has to be laid right, the foundation has to be true, or the building will not come out right.  How about you?  Does your foundation for your future home involve two families fully committed and sanctifying your betrothal and eventual marriage? 

The Apostle Paul summed up the proper foundation for a marriage and church organization in I Cor. 13:13 

I Corinthians 13:13 (NKJV) And now abide faith, hope, love, these three, but the greatest of these is love.

 Yes, love is the greatest and a principle of agape love which affects dating and betrothal is peace.  The fruit of the spirit must be sown in peace.  There is no other way.  If you do not have peace during your dating and betrothal, you will not have it after.  The choice is yours.

 The Church of God and Church of God families are far beyond the fragmentation process today.  They might better be described as atomized.  If not, they soon will be atomized at the rate they are going.  Do you want your family to be a part of this process, or would you rather it remain intact?

 This study hopes to move on after laying a foundation of a way of life from God’s Word to show biblical examples of personalities you will not want to date.  Young people need to be aware of these personalities.  They are detailed in the Bible and for your admonition at the end of this age.  Young people need to be able to discern these personalities and remove them from influencing their lives.  Fundamental to all of this is respect and honor for parents.  God gives you no excuse.  There is no exception.  You do not have the privilege of choosing another swell couple as surrogate parents.  What you and your future mate do have is the privilege of choosing four parents in a loving, dedicated family relationship that is sanctified by God.  The process involves proper dating and betrothal.  Like most things in life, there are no shortcuts. 

Matt. 5:9 (NKJV)  Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called the sons of God.

 Are you a peacemaker within your family as far as your dating relationship or is it more like a battlefield?  Is it sort of a battlefield with your prospective mate?  Is it a battlefield with your parents and the rest of your family?  You had better wake up, this is from the Sermon on the Mount.  You are setting yourself and your children up to be The Forlorn Hope.

 There is a triumvirate of principles from I Cor. 13:13 that works in a family relationship.  They are faith, hope, and agape love (peace).  When any of these three essential ingredients are gone, you will soon have nothing left in a family.

 The First Chance I Get, I Am Going Home

 Back in the late 60s there was a popular song which emphasized that the singer Wanted to Go Home.  Yes, many people have discovered that the glamour of life in the fast lane has its faults. 

Even outside the Churches of God, many people want to go home.  They have been away too long.  Since the September 11 terrorist attacks, a lot of people want to reestablish their family roots.  This is a positive sign, one that is long overdue.

 To close this chapter, I would like to focus on a recent article in the January 14, 2002 issue of Newsweek.  This article is on page14 and it titled My Deep, Dark Secret?  I Miss My Family.  The author is Hadley Moore and she lives in Salt Lake City.  This short article is a must reading for anyone who might enjoy a close family.  It tells a tale of the American Dream and how one young lady discovered its pitfalls.

 Just like many young people in the age bracket of 18-21 years of age, Hadley was tired of being pushed around.  Now she obviously had good parents and they always did their best for her, but she had bought The Lie.  She thought success and maturity was measured by how far she could get away from her family to go to school.  She just knew she could make the right decisions to guide and affect her life and she no longer needed those old parents.  Yes, she was obviously not self-sufficient when she got out of high school but she was an adult, even if her parents still had to pay the bills.  That is what our media and culture promotes and people most often buy the most attractive argument around.  So Hadley graduated as a normal 18 year old student, ready to conquer the world.  At least she was normal by worldly standards, but she hardly fit the mold for the character God is looking for.  Yes, the ability to pay your own bills is one sign of maturity but not the final test.

 As bad as her parents were, they evidently supported her financially as she chose to study in a Liberal Arts College and attend foreign universities.  That is what parents do, they sign the notes for federal education loans.  Students have no equity, despite their obvious intellectual superiority and maturity over their parents.  Notice carefully from her article that she was in a college, a field of study that permitted the luxury of foreign exchange.  There are some fields of study that do not lend themselves to the luxury of globe-trotting between universities as a means of achieving an education.

 As the story progresses, it becomes obvious that this young lady was not normal by worldly standards.  When she went to graduate school she moved a long way from home and she was not able to handle the separation.  She had been overseas for months at a time, yet this was different.  She realized the permanency of what was about to happen.  She would be separated from her family for the next several years with only a few opportunities to see them.  Despite the fact that modern society made communication easier with telephones, she was devastated.

 We can learn something here.  First she was obviously in a close family and while she flunked the independence requirements of the world, she fits in beautifully with God’s way of life, His way of thinking, the way of life this study paper is trying to emphasize.  Yes, God does not wish to see families scattered all over the place.  Already this young lady was starting to mature and by now she was probably twenty-one years of age. 

 Why you ask, was this crybaby starting to mature?  The reason is simple once you understand God’s Way.  God’s Way involves an inheritance.  Now Miss Moore’s family probably did not have great physical wealth.  Like most ordinary families, they had a home (undoubtedly a very close and loving home).  They probably always had plenty to eat, but the picture she presents is not one of great physical wealth.  What this young lady had matured to realize, by the time she left for graduate school, is that there is a spiritual aspect of inheritance.  This is an important concept and she knew she was about to relinquish that inheritance in a way she was not prepared to deal with.  As she describes her devastation and inability to handle this separation, it becomes obvious that whatever she expected from her parents, she was not expecting a lot of money.  They probably did not have it to give.

 Miss Moore goes on to show that she is still calling her own shots.  She found a mate from near her hometown and apparently has managed to get through the stages of dating, betrothal, and marriage with little if any input from her parents.  She is now at the definitely adult age of 24.  She finally saw her parents at her wedding last summer (That would be the summer of 2001).  Please note that the final chapters are not yet in concerning the success of this marriage.  All evidence points toward the definite possibility that it will be successful, but at the time of writing this article she has not yet been married one year.

 The best thing about her attitude toward life is how she views the vision of life the world presents.  She discusses how sitcoms have as an underlying theme that normal parents live far away and do not meddle or become involved in the lives of their children after about age 18.  What popycock and bullfeathers!  Strangely, I have heard ministers, self-professing ministers of Christ, push these same reprobate ideas.  Anytime someone trys to get you to believe you are an adult at 18 and that while you should keep on loving your parents, but you should not be seeing them on a regular basis, you are being deceived.  I do not know where someone would get such a perverted idea, but it does not come from the Bible.  If you profess to follow the Bible, to follow the way of life God promotes, ask these intellectuals to show you their case from scripture.  If you want to make your house a home, you have to be there.  If you want to make your family a real family, then you have to be there.  You cannot do it all by telephone.

 Yes, Hadley Moore is 24 and obviously an adult finally?  But, she and her husband have discovered the spiritual side of their inheritance.  The first chance they get, they are going to go home.  They want to go home to both families.  They want to live under the roof of both Their Fathers House and Their Father-in-laws House.  They do not wish to participate any further in the World’s system of disintegrating families.  Hurray for them. 

What If You Cannot Go Home?

 To close this chapter I want to pose one final question.  What if you cannot go home?  What if you have chosen a way of life that totally isolates you from your physical family?  Notice that Hadley Moore had not separated herself from her family.  The economics of the American Way separated her.  She had not fallen out with them or left in some tirade.  She thought she knew it all, but she never totally cut the spiritual umbilical chord with her family.  Circumstances separated her and she wants to go home.

 But, what if you do cut the spiritual umbilical chord?  Despite what Satan’s world pictures, this is a quite common thing.  Many young people make choices, which permanently cuts the spiritual umbilical chord with their physical families.  They loose their inheritance.  Oh, it is possible that they may loose a physical inheritance.  But, there is a greater inheritance they will loose.  This study hopes to show in later chapters that what they may lose is their spiritual inheritance.  If you wish to make your family a family, you have to be there.  God’s spiritually guided families practice a way of life.  If you are not there, you will not practice it with them and your family will have to go on without you.

 Remember, you reap what you sow.

 Walk up to the counter and hold out your cup:

 “One small bowl of cold soup please.  I’ll take tomato if you have it.  Otherwise, any old flavor will do.”