The Church of God Debacle!
In John 10, Jesus warns
about the work of the devil. He said that “the thief comes only to steal, to
kill and to destroy” (Jn 10:10). One of the things he destroys is
friendships or relationships.
The Churches of God
pride themselves on their ‘family values’, and on their ‘goodness’ which,
they say, brings harmony. They claim they are doing the Work of God, and
restoring the things the devil has destroyed.
But like all the lies of
the devil, that is a blend of truth and error. It is not the whole truth.
While they may be helping to restore relationships in one area – where
people obligingly submit to them and agree with all they say – they are busy
resisting the Hand of God in other areas, and destroying the next phase of
His Work.
Friends Who Are Not Friends
My wife and I once had
some good friends ‘in the church’, as we used to say. You tend to form
friendships with those whom you spend a lot of time with, or with whom you
share formative experiences. These ‘good friends’ shared time with us in
college, and afterwards when our families were growing up.
But when we were thrown
out of ‘the church’, these friends ceased to be friends. We hadn’t done
anything to warrant such radical expulsion from the fellowship of
‘believers’. The problem was caused by ministers who wanted to exert their
authority over us in a way that was unbiblical and illicit, and we stood up
to their overbearing domination.
God even showed me that
they were false ministers, and I said so to the ruling junta, naively
expecting these men to be expelled. But instead, we were the ones expelled.
Telling the truth – to try and protect the members – got us thrown out.
I don’t regret doing
what I did, because it was right. What I regret are the very sad
repercussions of what occurred. It caused our former friends to turn against
us – all of them! That was regrettable, even though it was part of God’s
plan.
Everyone is tested. God
tests each person’s loyalty. To whom are you loyal – to men or to
God?
These friends didn’t
care to know what really occurred, and why we were so suddenly ejected. They
didn’t want to know the truth, because their pride caused them to put their
church on a pedestal above all else. That pride in the organisation – and
pride is something that the devil injects into you – was paramount.
Friendship based on true love was not as important to them as worship of the
church.
The Transfer Of Loyalties
Notice I said “worship
of the church”. That’s very different from worship of God. They put the
church – the human organisation – in the place of God. Because of this
transfer of loyalties, they were in the grip of Satan and worshipped
something else other than God.
They didn’t realise they
had been trapped in darkness. Darkness does not want to be with light. It
cannot tolerate it (Jn 3:19-21), hence the division that then ensued.
What Church of God
people cannot see is that they are all deceived by such darkness. They are
trapped by the false dogmas that have put ‘the church’ in the place of God,
and which have caused the idolatrous elevation of their ministry, to the
point of usurping the position and prerogatives of Christ.
It is blasphemous! And
this blasphemy shuts the Spirit of God OUTSIDE their doors! Jesus stands
outside, knocking, seeking entry. But they won’t let Him in! They don’t want
Him correcting them, and taking away the elevated status they have gained
for themselves through pride.
They are proud of their
organisation. They are proud of their founder. They are proud of their
heritage and traditions. They are proud of their doctrines. They are proud
to be who they are.
If only they could see
where that pride has come from and who injected it into them, they would
hate themselves for the evil of it all!
...the woman saw
that the tree was good for food...
and desirable to make one wise (Gen 3:6).
That injection of pride was the first sin in the garden. Disobedience
immediately followed.
And fear came shortly after that.
Pride And Fear
When we wrote to our
friends about how their church (which was once ‘ours’, too) had thrown us
out because church leaders feared what we had against them that they didn’t
want to face, the same fear gripped our friends. They just couldn’t bring
themselves to face the fact that the organisation, which they had placed so
much trust and confidence in, could be in the wrong. “There’s no way ‘little
Malcolm and Helena’ could be right!” People look at the monolith of the
organisation, and like Hitler, think that “might makes right”. It doesn’t.
Physical size and
numbers have nothing to do with righteousness or justice. God warned Israel
not to follow the crowd in doing wrong (Ex 23:2). But people do. People are
so easily persuaded to follow what most others in the group do, like sheep.
At the root of this evil
are the motivations of pride and fear. Both are from the devil.
If CoG folks are ever to
get out of the pit they are trapped in, they have got to relinquish the
various aspects of pride I have already mentioned, and they have got to be
willing to take an honest, objective look at more truth from outside their
walls.
It’s complacent to think
you’ve got all truth. There’s always more to learn. And it’s stupid to think
that ‘your’ Church of God is able to do all the Great Commission by itself,
or even by all CoGs combined! It’s equally inept to think that one
organisation of men could be the body of Christ, as if there couldn’t be
many others in the body of Christ in other organisations around the world.
The exclusiveness of CoG
mentality is silly and very childish. It denies biblical truth and facts
about what constitutes the body of Christ (see Romans 8), based on the
prideful assumption that itself, and itself alone (or pretty much so) is the
sole descendant of the True Church, and the elect of God in the end time.
It’s such an embarrassingly stupid belief. It bears no semblance to reality.
There is so much
evidence of the moving of the Spirit of God in other groups, amongst many
different Christians all around the world, that you would have to bury your
head in the sand like the proverbial ostrich not to see it. Yet isn’t that
just what CoG folks tend to do? It’s out of fear.
They fear to be shown up
to be wrong. They also fear to step out of line with what they have been
taught. They fear to disobey the church ministry. There are also subliminal
fears:
-
Fear of
manifestations of the Holy Spirit.
-
Fear of the gifts of
the Spirit.
-
Fear of the
miraculous power of God.
-
Fear of demons.
-
Fear of prophets.
-
And fear of unknown
spiritual areas.
All these fears are
implanted by Satan, in his bid to control people’s minds, and to thwart the
restorative work of the Spirit of God.
Remember, the devil
comes only to steal, to kill, and to destroy. And he’s doing that in the
Churches of God, through fears, through pride, and through related evils.
It’s Jesus who wants you to have freedom, and the life that comes from the
free agency of His Spirit in you.
-
He gives you freedom
to think for yourself, guided by His Spirit (1 Jn 2:27).
-
He gives you freedom
to have confidence in His direct divine guidance (Jn 14:13; 1 Jn
3:21,22).
-
He gives you freedom
to bear fruit (Jn 15:5).
-
He gives you freedom
to reach out to others and evangelise (Matt 28:19).
-
He gives you freedom
to receive directly from Him whatever you need (Jn 14:13,14; 1 Jn 3:22).
-
He gives you freedom
to receive and perform miracles (Jn 14:12), according to His will, of
course.
-
And He affords you
any freedoms you need in order to achieve His purpose and for you as a
completely independent child of God, born in His image.
You are born in HIS
image, not to be cloned by church leaders into their contrived and often
false image. To submit to them, as they deny you this full latitude of the
Spirit, is to submit to Satan, because he is the one who denies you these
legitimate spiritual freedoms in Christ. He achieves his evil ends through
psychological manipulation or mind control. CoG mentors are good at that!
With that preamble, let
me now share with you some
correspondence I had with various former good friends of ours in
CoGs. The correspondence illustrates the mind control to which they have
submitted themselves, so they are not free to think or behave rationally and
sensibly, let alone spiritually!
Letters of Release
God instigated this
correspondence, as He often does, through a dream He gave me. So I wrote:
3rd July 2004
I had a dream about you
last night. It was this (cut and pasted from my dream diary):
3rd July 2004. M.
Former friends and our caravan.
I offered our former friends (who are now in a CoG) our caravan. It
was a 14 footer, but was secondhand, of course, and there were some
signs of wear and tear inside, but it was still a very worthwhile gift.
But they didn't jump at the prospect. In fact they hadn't decided
whether to accept it or not. I was still waiting for their decision.
Meaning:
We are still waiting for them to make a decision to accept our ministry
and the truth it brings. Admittedly, it's 'old' in that others have had
gifts of the Spirit and the power of God to raise the dead before. But
the evidence is there that God is raising the dead in connection with
MM's work, but still they refuse to accept it.
It's part of the gospel
to raise the dead, just as it is part of the gospel to heal the sick, cast
out demons, or speak in tongues. But of course, all this is alien to those
who still cling to restrictive theology which denies Jesus' words in John
14:12.
I don't know if you are
in league with John Meakin, or whether he is in one of the other CoGs, but I
sent him a packet of literature a couple of weeks ago, after waiting seven
years for no reply. It's easier raising the dead than reaching old friends!
[Meakin didn’t reply either, like all the CoG ministers to whom we have
written. Well, they can carry on sleeping!]
We have power to raise
the dead, and will be demonstrating that shortly. I enclose some small
publications to show that, and that it's not just us who claim that
privilege, lest any think we are being presumptuous in stating it.
Hope you'll soon accept
the 'caravan' on offer. Then you can travel ahead, too, into 'new' areas.
God bless.
Sincerely,
Malcolm
Needless to say, there
was no reply. This is the typical response of a person bound by fear and /
or pride. They go quiet and hide.
So, I wrote again:
26th August 2004
I trust you received my
letter of 3rd July.
Since I haven't heard
back from you, does that mean that you still dispose of 'our stuff' into the
dustbin, or regard what we print as not appropriate reading material?
Or, now that we
publicise the many dreams which God gives us, does that qualify us for
inclusion in your Extreme Heresy File?
Come on, what about
getting in touch? We haven't heard from you for years, and don't you think
it's about time you responded? We're getting a bit tired of it all being one
way.
We're not lepers, you
know. Our printed material doesn't carry AIDS, and I haven't gone mental
doing this work!
I know you were both
sceptical of what I said many years ago when Worldwide was apostatising and
we spoke out against them. But, I would have hoped that, having seen the
apostasy for yourselves, and come out from the 'mother church', that you
would be less prejudiced against us. After all, there are false ministers
about, you know. And all we were doing was alerting people to that fact. I
could name some in your church affiliation, too, but it probably wouldn't
interest you at the moment or be helpful to you. Or would it? You may
surprise me yet!
We have had quite a
number of dreams from God about you and how you will react when the
publicity breaks out (not so far ahead of us now), so it's time for you to
get your running shoes ready. I enclose a short article about that – Just
What Is 'The Work'? If you want to know what the dreams were, I can
relay them when I hear back from you.
Meanwhile, I enclose a
selection of short A5's that contain bits and pieces that should give you a
flavour of what's happening and what will also shortly begin to happen. I'll
send a copy of our latest Newsletter when it's back from the copiers soon.
It contains many dreams from a prophet in Ethiopia about a whole host of
things, many of which concern the Tribulation which will engulf his country
before it arrives here.
God bless. Hope to hear
from you soon.
Sincerely,
Malcolm
With that letter I
enclosed these leaflets:
Are You Moving Ahead?
Carried Along By The
Spirit
Church Leaders Shut
The Door On Jesus!
Opposition Against
The Power of God
More About The Gifts
Of The Spirit
He Must Increase, But
I Must Decrease
Dreams From God About
The Judgement Of Britain
Wielding The Divine
Axe
God’s Appointed Times
Preparing A Flock For
Slaughter
Guidelines For
Evangelists
Blessing Or Curse?
The Last Outpouring
Of The Spirit
Dismantling Churches
You Should DEFY, Not
Deify, Church Authority!
Prophets In The
Church
Just What Is The
Work?
Questions About The
Prophetic
Raised From The Dead
At Midnight, Part 1
Raised From The Dead
At Midnight, Part 2
What God Said About
Midnight Ministries
This time I got a reply.
Wonder of wonders!
But it was not a civil
or courteous reply. There was nothing of the Spirit of God in it. It was
merely a small Post It note stuck on top of a booklet with Herbert
Armstrong’s face on the cover, entitled Just What Is An Apostle,
written by Jon Bowles. The note read:
“Please read this. When
I see both you and I under the same Government of God, then we can talk
sensibly.”
Do you see at which
altar this man worships? It’s not the altar of God. It’s the altar of HWA.
HWA is the one he bows down to and worships.
Confronting His Strongholds
In response, I wrote to
try and help him be released from the bondage of his misconceptions. But
pride held him firmly in check.
I don’t know whether he
feared to entertain the thought that he might be wrong, but certainly he
refused to let go of his pride. Stubbornly he held onto it. But if you want
to enter the Kingdom of God, you have got to let go of your pride and fears.
I hope that what I wrote
to Jon, which now follows, can help release others who are
willing.
To those who would find
fault with me for naming and shaming the person, may I suggest that you read
of similar instances where Paul named individuals who were false Christians
or who opposed the truth, such as 1 Timothy 1:19,20 and 2 Timothy 2:16-18,
which is according to his advice in Titus 3:10.
5th Sept 2004
Dear Jon,
Although the cryptic note
with your book about HWA was signed by you, Jon, I trust you will share this
response with Judy, since two minds are often better than one.
You wrote: “When I see both
you and I under the same Government of God, then we can talk sensibly.”
Helena and I have been
waiting for you to talk sensibly with us for over 12 years, and now you come
up with such a comment as if we were not under the Government of God and
that the blame for the division between us rests entirely in our court. What
arrogance and blindness! Your response typifies the arrogant and aloof stand
adopted by WCG and now CoG ministers.
Your comment is rich with
hypocrisy! Talk sensibly?! What the hell do you think we have been trying to
instigate through sending you all the written materials that we have done
over the years?!
0And you tell me to “Please
read this”, referring to your rather elementary book Just What is An
Apostle? What about reading the stuff I have sent you first, to see what
we have been trying to tell you for all these years?
First you dumped our stuff
in the ‘Heresy File’, presumably mostly unread, because it didn’t fit in
with your preconceived dogmas. You didn’t respond according to scriptural
admonition:
A) Not to form a conclusion
before proper investigation (Prov 18:13);
B) If a man is caught in a
fault, humbly show him his fault (Gal 6:1; Jas 5:19,20) if you have true
insight.
You did write to me years
ago with a selfrighteous lecture about my need to blindly submit to WCG
authority, regurgitating the old chestnut from 1 Samuel 15 about “God’s
anointed”, taking it entirely out of its context and applying it to the
ministry appointments of HWA.
You never sensibly
entertained what we were forewarning you of – that there were false
ministers subtly leading people astray, fleecing the sheep. Those hirelings
were not anointed – except by the devil. We wanted to alert you to what was
going on that you could not see. That was in 1991 and 1992.
You didn’t listen, like the
majority of others.
We prophesied as God
revealed things to us about what was coming. In 1991, before there were
visible ripples on the surface, we told the WCG that their ship was heading
towards the rocks and that it would sink.
One bank holiday Monday a
strange thing happened. I was planning to work outside in the garden, but an
inner urge from the Spirit made me feel that I should pick up my Bible. I
did and I turned ‘instinctively’ to Revelation. I didn’t know why at the
time. Then I began to read the words that were open on the page. God
highlighted something I had taken little notice of earlier:
The synagogue of Satan!
There it was staring me in
the face: what we were facing, and why people were being prepared for
spiritual slaughter. They were being ruled by the synagogue of Satan – held
in bondage to a Satanic system, but unable to see it!
God had me read the text in
Rev 3:9 in the section about Philadelphia. Then, He dropped other thoughts
into my mind. I have written these things up. From that time on, He began to
speak regularly in dreams, visions, sometimes words of knowledge (if you
don’t know what a word of knowledge is, please read about it in An
Introduction To The Spiritual Gifts.)
If you want to know what He
said, you can see it for yourself in the record of ‘our’ prophetic witness
to the WCG:
In 1992, we prophesied as
the Spirit of God moved upon us. The first thing was of the downfall of the
WCG because of its corrupt governmental structure and abusive approach.
And you are carrying on with
the same organisational structure that allowed false ministers to hold sway
in the WCG and bring about its downfall. All the CoGs are doing this. They
can’t see that what they are doing is merely carrying on the same old way,
replacing the lead of the Spirit of God with that of man, claiming that the
men who lead those churches are always led by God. But what if there are
false ministers there? What if one right alongside you is false? You
will be giving him support. Yet he will not be guided by the Spirit of God,
but by demons who bring people into bondage. And you will be unwittingly
giving homage to his demons! Moreover, there will be subtle deception that
the sheep can’t discern.
Spiritual Discernment
Lacking
In 1991, the year after we
were thrown out of the WCG, massive apostasy was on its way, but it was
cleverly hidden from the eyes of members. They were kept in ignorance. Yet
God showed us some of what was coming. He had me write The Controversy
Concerning Law and Grace in 1992. I didn’t know why. There was NO
controversy in the WCG then. At least, I didn’t think so. I couldn’t see it.
But three years later it came! God always gives prior warning (Amos 3:7).
But who listens to prophets?! Those are the last people Satan wants God’s
folks to listen to! So, he makes sure he ruins prophets’ reputations, and
throws arguments galore against the prophetic office so that it is
ineffectual. The people can’t discern. It’s easy for the devil to keep them
trapped through deception and lies (that false ministers and misguided
church leaders promote) that destroy people’s ability to discern.
And what about your
discernment? Why weren’t you discerning years ago, when we first wrote to
try and alert you to the masquerade that was taking place? You wouldn’t
listen to us, yet we had been given a ‘crash course’ in spiritual
discernment, taught by the Holy Spirit.
You are still not discerning
now!
You haven’t done as Jesus
said: assess a person by their spiritual fruits (Matt 7:15-20).
Yet, by your own admission
years ago you noticed that God was blessing us (2 Sam 6:11). You admitted
that you had seen us put Luke 6:38 into practice and see it work as a living
principle. You were recipients of many of the good works we tried to do for
people whom we considered brothers and sisters in the faith. We supported
the church (into which God had called us) faithfully in every way we could.
We never wanted to contest anything coming from ‘the top’, because we
believed it to be God’s Church, just like you did. That’s all we could
understand at that time.
But that all changed when
ministers conspired against us, lied about us to members to polarise their
minds against us in order to dominate and spiritually retain psychological
control, and went on a hostile crusade against us because they felt
spiritually threatened. God used a peripheral issue to flush them out.
Through what He instigated, He showed us their evil fruits and ruthless
inner motives.
He also revealed through a
word of knowledge to someone else (not to me) that Harry Sullivan was a
carrier of 500 demons. And there were many other false ministers, too. So,
the ones you wanted to esteem highly as an “anointed” bunch were not all of
the right Spirit at all!
Even though the peripheral
issue of kinesiology was officially approved in WCG Pasadena, and the
Toppings were practising muscle testing as a diagnostic technique, for the
benefit of many WCG ministers in Pasadena HQ, over here Harry Sullivan and
Paul Suckling ignored what was happening over there, and mounted a vendetta
against Helena. In a ‘sermon’ on the 9th day of the 9th month 1989, God
would cause Suckling to come under His judgement (biblical symbol of 9) on
that fateful day. Paul Suckling preached a sermon against Helena, attacking
her, lying about her, twisting the truth, deliberately ignoring scientific
facts, and totally distorting things. Its purpose was to counter the good
she was doing in the church and instil fear in people, thereby destroying
any good Helena could do for the members. People were utterly confused! John
High said afterwards, “What was all that about!?” Although I could say a lot
more about it, I won’t. What happened is now history and I have written
about it at length elsewhere.
God used all that transpired
to teach us valuable lessons about testing the spirits (1 Jn 4:1) of which
we were taught next to nothing in the WCG (for what should become obvious
reasons when you understand how many ministers were false!).
It’s a pity you didn’t allow
yourselves to be fully aware of what these ministers whom you upheld as
“God’s anointed”, did to us, before you also joined in and relegated us to
the trash bin of history. But I don’t blame you – even though it was hurtful
at the time and has led to this division between us – because that is the
way the WCG conditioned us all to behave.
You still retain that
hostile or suspicious prejudice against us, so that whatever we write is not
given the objective consideration as I have been willing in this instance to
give you. (I will come to that in a moment – about your book which you asked
me to read.)
In 1991 and 1992, God took
us to various places, showed us what was happening in the broader Church, to
teach us more. As He needed to, He began to communicate with us through
dreams. They were few at first, and I thought them rather curious at the
time, but wonderful. The first was about getting on the guard’s van of the
train that Suckling was driving, and he didn’t notice. This was an allegory
of the way he controlled the WCG in this country even though Frank Brown was
supposed to be in charge, but Suckling was a more dominant and forceful
personality. The guard’s van symbolised the one who really caused the train
to stop or go. God gave us prophecies about the WCG’s demise and they
occurred just as He prophesied. All I did was write down what He said and
how He guided me.
Then the next scene of that
dream was being in a wonderful orchard full of blossom. God showed us these
things to give us hope in our isolation and rejection. The blossom was a
very positive portent of all the spiritual good things to come.
After giving us a ‘tour’ of
the broader Church, seeing many other Christians where God was at work, He
then commissioned A Message To Worldwiders and others in that series
about Understanding The Mind of God and how He works; as well as
Apostasy In God’s Church!
Talking sensibly
When those publications were
first published in 1992, you were still giving your loyalties to ministers
in the WCG, some of whom have proved by their evil fruits to be enemies of
the Cross and agents of Satan. I don’t know when you left WCG, but you
probably followed others out after the larger exodus in 1995. God was
restoring truth to us while you were still in psychological bondage in the
mother church.
You ask me to consider what
you have written, so that we can then ‘talk sensibly’. Equally, I expect you
to take me seriously and what I have written. Since we were ‘at it’ first,
long before you, you ought to give priority to reading all that I have taken
years to detail for the sake of the spiritual deliverance of God’s people.
Then – if you understood it – you could be in the proper position to make a
more accurate assessment of our position and motives, instead of insulting
us and ‘our’ work for God.
Where do you think all the
dreams come from? We don’t make them up! And what about the dreams given to
Kassahun Ayele, a prophet in Ethiopia? And the dreams given to Nicholas
Odero in Kenya, and Lameck Otieno in Kenya, and Vincent Awidhi in Kenya? All
these guys are working in the harvest field of their African countries,
using MM literature for their outreach, and God is blessing their efforts!
Then, there’s Reuben Oviomor
in Nigeria, doing the same. Where do you think ‘his ‘dreams come from that
have confirmed our appointment as prophets in God’s service? If you reject
us, then how do you explain all this corroboration?
Furthermore, how come David
Isaac Ohuoba, who carries ‘our’ outreach further in Nigeria, has raised
people from the dead? (I sent you those accounts previously in Raised
From The Dead At Midnight.) If we are reprobates, as you suggest, then
where are your evidences of miraculous backing of God, and how do you
explain our (and their) dreams?
If you think the dreams are
from the devil, then why do they come to pass, and why have other prophecies
God has given us come to pass? If you think they are not of God, then why do
they encourage spiritual introspection, repentance, and deeper spiritual
growth? Why do they promote spiritual things of high value? Their fruits are
good, not evil. If the fruit is good, then call the tree good, not evil
(Matt 12:33).
We are to believe God’s
prophets, and so reap a spiritual blessing (2 Chron 20:20).
If you want to look for
excuses to disbelieve – which you do already – God will give you plenty of
them. He is a Master at sending strong delusion (1 Thes 2). But if you want
to believe that what God gives is of the devil, beware that you don’t become
irreversibly children of the devil like most Pharisees and Scribes whose
pride would not allow them to concede that what they were seeing was from
God, while they were not receiving from Him at all.
If you dismiss the dreams
God has given us because, “Well, Malcolm and Helena couldn’t be prophets,
could they? After all, we know where they have come from. When Elijah comes
we won’t know where he comes from.” Then consider what Jesus said about
those who knew Him personally but who were the most unbelieving – His former
friends and those from His home town.
And there was Joseph, too,
‘the incessant dreamer’. He was resented by his brothers. They didn’t want
to admit that God was saying something to them through his dreams.
Yet dreams are part of the
prophesied outpouring in these last days, of which Joel spoke, and which the
apostolic Church was the first beneficiary (Acts 2:17 etc). God is the same
yesterday, today and forever, and He continues to give dreams to fulfil His
purposes and to speak to His prophets (Num 12:6).
If our dreams were suspect,
then why has God given corroboration to Kassahun Ayele, another prophet in
Ethiopia, about our work being of God, and also to other evangelists in
Kenya, besides other revelations from God and via angels to other witnesses
abroad? There is loads of independent support that our ministry is ordained
by God and that He is restoring truth through it. (I sent you some of this –
a small fragment – in the leaflet What God Said About
Midnight Ministries,
and there are many other dreams in the enclosed Newsletters which God gave
to other people about us, which I have highlighted in yellow.)
Sorry, but you are
completely out of touch with spiritual reality! – asleep (Matt 25:5) to what
God is doing outside the narrow confines of your myopic field of view.
I’m talking sensibly here.
It is you who have been unwilling all these years to talk sensibly with us!
So, please read what I have sent. Then we can talk sensibly if you want to,
but I have my doubts whether your humility is sufficient yet to allow that.
Pride blocks understanding
and is self-blinding. So, I suspect that what I’m saying here will only fall
on deaf ears. But I would hope not. God knows we care for people’s spiritual
welfare, yours included! You were amongst our best friends until Satan came
between us.
Your Book:
Just What is An Apostle?
Your book reveals a lack of
spiritual understanding and depth. It contains major misconceptions and is
based on false premises and old WCG false dogma. There is no revelation of
the Spirit there. It is merely human reasoning, based upon dogmas which
established the humanly dominated structure of the WCG and caused it to be
spiritually oppressive.
The false dogmas or premises
upon which you have based your treatise are:
1) That the True Church is
Church of God based, comprised mainly of people from the old WCG, which you
considered at one time (also wrongly) to be the one True Church on earth.
2) That authority in the
Church is hierarchic – one of rank – and that God leads His people through
the church leader(s).
3) That Herbert Armstrong
was God’s one and only true apostle in this end time, and a man of God.
4) And that you have to
submit to his spiritual authority and believe all that he taught to be a
true end-time believer. (That is the basis of a cult.)
These are all false premises
which you have not proven, but taken as assumed correct. On those
assumptions you then build your thesis. But the foundation is flawed so your
incorrect thesis falls.
These issues were addressed
comprehensively in a range of booklets I wrote with God’s guidance between
1992 and 1994. They are in the Understanding The Mind of God series
and I enclose two of them for you. If you want the others, you can send a
donation.
It may seem plausible to you
that ‘your’ apostle was the one and only (which is all you could see,
because your spiritual experience is very incomplete), but that is
inconsistent with other scriptural considerations:
1) The Church is founded
upon the testimony of apostles, plural (Eph 2:20), which text you quote, but
then undo and undermine with your further comments that are lacking
spiritual understanding.
2) It is also founded
co-equally upon the God-given testimony of prophets (Eph 2:20 and 3:5),
which you wrongly conclude are merely OT prophets, because your experience
does not go far enough to embrace the prophetic of the NT. Yet, Eph 3:5
makes it clear that this living foundation is continuous and
contiguous, and comprises NT prophets.
3) Every matter is
established by the testimony of two or three witnesses (2 Cor 13:1).
When a church is governed by
one man at the top of a hierarchy, it is relatively easy for him to abuse
his position. “Power corrupts and absolute power tends to corrupt
absolutely.” You know the maxim well that Lord Acton first spoke.
One man in an
unchallengeable hierarchic position at the helm can easily lead people
astray or dupe them, or manipulate them for his own ends.
The papal system that HWA
established in the WCG was little different from the Catholic monolith,
which God calls an abomination in Revelation. That is not merely on account
of her doctrines, but also her government, which blasphemously puts a man in
place of Christ. The same was true of HWA in the former WCG. Effectively,
within the church, he was accountable to no one except God.
That would be fine from a
practical point of view so long as he remains faithful to God. And you
assume that he did. However, there is a mountain of evidence that you have
either overlooked, or ignored, or dismissed, to show that he was not
faithful to God. Others have presented this, with extensive research, and I
have reproduced some of it in (articles):
When a man, all alone, sits
astride an organisation, he is its rider and no one can contest his
decisions without fear of being trampled on by the animal he rides. That’s
what happened to many capable and courageous men who dared to contradict
HWA. They were either silenced, removed from office, transferred to a more
isolated outpost, or disfellowshipped and sacked. I remember one who
disappeared rather mysteriously from being a Regional Director, and was sent
‘out into the field’ with little explanation. Robert Fahey. Many years later
I asked Owen Willis about what happened. He said euphemistically and
phlegmatically, “his confrontational approach did not go down well at HQ...”
He was only one of many whom
HWA got rid of because they were a threat to his autocracy. He wanted blind
obedience from those under him – unquestioning subservience to his
dictatorship. What more admirable means to attain absolute power could he
have wanted than to use the lie that he was God’s one and only true apostle
under Christ and that he, and he alone, was the final arbiter and revelator
of truth to the Church!
That massive blasphemy
matched the claims of former Catholic Popes, and qualified HWA for a
position alongside all of them in Revelation 17.
Armstrong was an apostle all
right! A false apostle. Paul affirmed the proof of his own apostleship in 2
Corinthians 12:12 – “in [miraculous] signs and wonders and mighty deeds.”
HWA did not have that
testimony to add to his list of affidavits. Paul did. Barnabas did (Acts
15:12). Peter did (Acts 9:40), and all the original apostles did, as did all
other evangelists (Acts 8:6-13), prophets and apostles following after. And
the same spiritual power continues today, which is why we have published
various booklets making it known, such as Resurrecting The Dead –
Testimonies In Our Time which contains accounts from many people of such
happenings. To cite one example: an apostle who works in Mexico, Guatemala
and other Central American countries. When the publication was compiled
David Hogan had raised 216 people from the dead in his ministry.
That’s a sign of his
apostleship (2 Cor 12:12). The power of God testifies that God is behind
him. Yet you dismiss the power of God in your thesis as of no relevance. It
has every relevance! Paul adjured true believers to turn away from those who
have a form of godliness but who deny the power of God.
Autocracy
Going back to HWA and how he
dismissed people who got in his way, or who didn’t give him the servile
bootlicking he wanted. Was that the Government of God? No; it was government
of man, despite how HWA expounded on its spurious ‘virtues’. He was led by
Satan to embellish it as the Government of God for his own devious ends,
misappropriating scriptures out of context to promote his thesis.
What he set up was not much
different from Hitler’s dictatorship. In the spiritual, that’s what it was
like to God.
In fact, God spoke to
Richard one day with a vision of how the WCG ministers were weak spiritually
and were manipulated by the system that HWA had established. (This is
written in God Speaks To The WCG, pp 36,37.) He showed Richard also
how Gerald Flurry had taken the same spiritually ruthless and despotic
hierarchic structure and used it for his own selfish ends to glorify himself
in the PCG. God portrayed Flurry as no different from Hitler! That was God’s
spiritual appraisal. (Recounted in A Message To Philadelphians.)
Yet, what you promote in
Just What Is An Apostle? is no different in principle from Gerald
Flurry’s oppressive and blasphemous governmental monster. Any absolute
hierarchy is open to abuse by a man if he holds ultimate control.
Yet you don’t find any of
the apostles in the NT able to, wanting to, or thinking they had a right to,
take supreme command over the Church. You find a Church where the people
were very much involved in certain decisions, such as sending Paul and
Barnabas to Jerusalem:
“So, being sent on their way
by the church...” (Acts 15:3),
Paul and Barnabas went up to Jerusalem to advise on an important spiritual
matter.
In Acts 13, while the Holy
Spirit commissioned them (v 4), which you quote, you omit the vitally
important point before it: that those individuals sent the apostles on their
way (v 3).
The apostles were very aware
that they were there to serve the flock. They did not have the right
to lord it over them (Matt 20:25,26). But we see that travesty occur today,
where the concept and function of a spiritual office has been perverted and
reversed! Apostles then were servants of the people, accountable to the
Church as well as to God. Today, we see church leaders who claim apostleship
as hierarchic overlords, suppressing and controlling the sheep.
In God’s Church – Whose
Authority? God had me write about this massive misconception that people
have about hierarchy. They think it’s of God, when it’s of Satan. It’s an
image of the beast’s system of rule, where men exert spiritual and moral
rule over others. Its origin is Babylon, and even Armstrong himself was
shown this by the Spirit of God back in the thirties. (See his article
Did Christ Reorganise The Church? published in Feb 1939 in the
Good News[1].)
If you subscribe to the
system that idolises HWA, why don’t you give your loyalties to Gerald
Flurry? He set up his church in about 1989 if I remember correctly. You talk
about the chain of authority (page 6). But you don’t answer the myriad of
questions that arise from this false premise which is derived from a half
truth, a partial application of Matt 10:40. Which ministers are directly
under HWA, and who are under them, etc., as it was in the WCG?
By silent inference, and by
your book, aren’t you suggesting that you are one such overlord? If so, that
would explain your presumptuous approach to me, as brief as it was on your
Post-It note.
If, as you assert,
ministerial authority is one of lordship – rank (page 7) in a human pecking
order, then you need to provide a more comprehensive chain for people to
know where they fit, and to whom they must submit in this confusion that
masquerades under the misnomer “Church of God”.
The truth is, there’s no
such rank thing in the true spiritual organisation of the Church. Rank is a
deception, foisted upon people by those who use it to retain power over
others! In God’s scheme of things, true spiritual authority is from the Holy
Spirit, DIRECTLY bequeathed to the individual believer. Hence ANYONE can
work miracles, preach, teach, heal the sick, cast out demons, and do
whatever works of Jesus that He leads and empowers that person to do. Notice
it in John 14:12. Jesus said ANYONE. That means anyone who has the faith.
And that faith comes with commitment to God in laying down pride, conceit,
selfish ambition, in order to serve the King.
That’s why we can raise the
dead, because God has promised and He will fulfil. He’s the Source of this
authority – not man. I didn’t need a man to lay his hands on my head and
ordain me a prophet. God spoke. God decreed. God ordained. And God fulfils.
That’s the chain of command.
You got part of it right. You just didn’t go on far enough.
HWA had a chance to be part
of the Government of God, but he rejected it in favour of doing his own
thing to glorify himself. He became blinded to that aspect of truth, through
sin. Those serious sins included incest, which he hid from the members of
the WCG for as long as he could. Others have written about this behaviour
which disqualified him as a man of God. It is summarised in:
The Corrupt Leaders of
the WCG.
Please read also A
Message To Philadelphians enclosed. It will enlighten you, if you let
it.
John the Baptist
On page 13 of your book, you
claim that John the Baptist was an apostle, merely because he was ‘sent’ to
prepare the way for Jesus and because Jesus affirmed John’s spiritual
greatness. But there were many other prophets who were sent to
prophesy and reveal the will of God, and through their pronouncements and
teaching they also prepared the way for what God was about to do. That
didn’t make them apostles. Nor did it make John the Baptist an apostle.
You’re using specious and
very subjective reasoning. It comes from your dubious intent, which is to
try and prove the false premises I have mentioned on page 4.
The greatest people in God’s
estimation – which point seems to have totally eluded you – are those who
think least of themselves. Hence Jesus likened them to that child he held to
Himself (Matt 18). And, likewise, the most vitally needed quality in God’s
value system is that of humility.
You don’t see much of that
where ministers are standing like Nebuchadnezzars over the people they are
meant to serve, not rule!
That’s why Jesus hailed John
as the greatest man who ever lived, and more than a prophet. He wasn’t
implying that John was an apostle. The term ‘apostle’ is a NT appointment,
designed in conjunction with raising up the Church – because that’s what an
apostle does; he raises up churches or congregations of believers wherever
God sends him in his evangelistic outreach. John the Baptist was not an
apostle. He was the last of the OT prophets (Matt 11:13). He was not a NT
prophet, nor apostle.
If your supposition were
true that John was an apostle because of what Jesus said about his
greatness, then even more apostolic is every believer who is now a part of
the kingdom of God because he or she has God’s Spirit transforming them
within, enabling them to do the greater works of Jesus. Notice it:
“Among those born of
women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he
who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he” (Matt
11:11, NKJV).
In the underlined words,
Jesus did not mean in the spiritual or heavenly sphere would these people be
greatest. He meant here on earth, because in the next verse He says that
they suffer violence – a reference to the struggles in this life before
being born again fully into the Kingdom. He meant that the ‘little people’
who are called into the kingdom of God here on earth (they have that
classification because they become part of God’s kingdom once they have the
Spirit of God living in them) are greater than John the Baptist.
Sorry, but you have missed
the whole point of what Jesus was saying. It’s not surprising. Humility is
still alien to your operation as a ‘minister’.
Prophets
Then on page 15, you state
unambiguously that the foundation of the True Church consists of apostles
(plural, which you have already undone and reduced to one in this age) AND
PROPHETS (Eph 2:20), but you then downplay the issue of prophets. You lay
them on one side with a shrug of the shoulders, and a cursory statement that
the prophets in the Eph 2:20 foundation were merely the OT prophets (page
17, last para). But this contradicts some of what you have already written
about some NT prophets such as those in Acts 13 at Antioch. So:
“...in Ephesians 2:20,
were almost certainly the Old Testament prophets...” (p 17.)
That’s not so, they include
NT prophets too. Jesus said:
“I will send them
prophets and apostles...” (Luke 11:49).
He’s not talking about OT
prophets there, but NT ones (because they are in conjunction with apostles),
and by putting prophets first in His statement before apostles, He is also
making a point that you want to overlook or deny in contemporary reality –
that prophets are EQUALLY vital for the establishment of the Church’s
spirituality.
But you reduce the
foundations of the Church now to:
1) First century apostles;
2) Old Testament prophets;
and
3) Herbert W Armstrong.
Because the ministry of
contemporary prophets is outside of your experience, you pass over their
inclusion – not just in Eph 2:20 – as part of the living contiguous
spiritual foundation (foundational ministries of apostles and prophets are
around today; there are many hundreds of them, if not thousands!) – but also
you omit any inclusion, despite the mention of them in Eph 3:5, Eph 4:11 and
2 Pet 3:2. You use those scriptures on page 15 (only in brackets, mind you,
so most people will miss it) to emphasise the only point that you want to
make to bolster your apostle thesis. But prophets are mentioned there on a
par with apostles, and you cannot have the one without the other, as Eph
4:11 makes clear. Either you accept contemporary prophets, along with
apostles, or you reject a foundational aspect of Truth.
Moreover, Eph 4:11 says
these appointments of the five-fold ministry will be there until the saints
are perfected. Since that has not happened yet, ALL those appointments are
still in effect and Jesus is working through them to bring His saints to
perfection.
You gloss over the equal
status or validity of prophets alongside the apostolic. It’s dishonest and
reprehensible to take away from the Word of God, to try and prove a personal
point. If it is out of ignorance, you need be ignorant no longer. We have
provided the truth on this for many years in the booklet Prophets and
Prophesying. And I don’t say that we are alone in that, of course. MANY
others, primarily charismatic or Pentecostal believers have been aware of
much of this for decades!
It would be pointless me
asking you to name some contemporary prophets, because you are clearly
unaware of any – other than to slag some off as false prophets. But the
existence of the counterfeit is a sure sign of the presence of the true,
otherwise Satan would not try to counterfeit it.
God uses prophets today just
as He has done for the last two millennia – to bring revelation to His
people that they would otherwise not receive, and which they need to mature.
They complement the apostolic office. For convenience of ‘classification’,
in Paul’s list of ministry gifts, he places apostles first for obvious
reasons. What use is a prophet where an apostle has not first been sent to
raise up a church? But prophets are just as essential as apostles, as Paul
emphasises in Eph 2:20; 3:5 and 4:11.
For example, the prophet
Agabus pronounced things to Paul that God did not directly reveal to Paul,
for various good reasons (Acts 21:10). God uses prophets today, likewise.
But you don’t want to recognise them. You certainly don’t have any in your
area of work. The Churches of God, following a hostile tradition established
by Herbert Armstrong, reject and repudiate contemporary prophets, just as
Jesus foretold (Luke 11:49; Matt 23:37).
The prophets at Antioch,
too, were foundational in the workings of the Church (Acts 13:1). It was
these prophets who were shown by the Spirit that Paul and Barnabas were to
be appointed as apostles. From time to time such prophets received
revelation for the apostles, and for the whole Church. So, if your premise
to do with the chain of authority were true, at Antioch you would have
prophets in a superior position to those apostles.
Look closer at Acts 13:3 and
you will notice that these prophets sent the apostles on their way. You
omitted to mention that, preferring to just use verse 4, where it says the
Holy Spirit sent them on their way. Putting the two together, you can see
that the ‘chain of authority’, as you put it, in that instance came from God
through the prophets via His Spirit to those apostles.
The
apostles were subject to the prophets there, and there is a case for every
person to be subject to anyone else who is so moved by the Spirit, which is
why Paul said so in Eph 5:21. But that doesn’t come into your equation. Your
governmental structure is only a from-the-top-down human hierarchy.
Do you see, then, that these
‘offices’ of prophet and apostles are not a matter of rank, but of
importance of FUNCTION? They are equally vital, but the apostle has a
slight edge in importance over that of prophet in most instances because of
his function. It’s not one of rank; not one of lordship, like you are making
out. It’s one of effective working and service.
Function
is the pivotal word to remember, not rank. That’s another reason John the
Baptist was the greatest prophet who ever lived until that time, because he
prepared the way for Jesus, the Son of God, to actually minister on earth.
All other prophets did not do that. They called people to repentance, but
John had more to proclaim – Christ was coming in the flesh, a completely
unique event – highly momentous!
You quote Eph 3:5 on page 17
about the reality of prophets in the foundations of the early Church, but
fail to see that they are still around in the contemporary context,
receiving revelation from God for the Church’s benefit as a whole (if it
were heeded).
All offices are meant to
complement one another and work alongside each other. God never intended for
the office of apostle to be used like the Gentiles, to lord it over all the
others (Matt 20:25,26). Far from it! He meant prophets to be equally
accepted alongside apostles, so that God’s revelations to them can benefit
all believers.
If all the workings of
ministry amongst believers were hierarchic as you suggest, then I could
claim a right to lord it over you on the basis of the hundreds of
revelations I have received in dreams from God. But I won’t claim such a
‘right’. It is not correct. And I don’t seek such lordship. That would be
arrogant as well as unscriptural.
It is for you to voluntarily
come to acknowledge any such prophetic office, so that you can benefit from
what God gives that particular individual in his or her ministry (Matt
10:39-41).
But true to Jesus’ words, we
are “killed and crucified”. That just about sums up the attitude most have
to prophets. They’re not usually welcomed, to say the least!
As I said earlier, the
foundations of the Church, like the Church itself, is a living
structure. They – the gifts of apostles and prophets – didn’t cease when the
Apostolic Church died in the first century. As Christ lives and walks amidst
His lampstands He raises up apostles and prophets to continue what He began
in the first century.
Revelation from Jesus does
not cease. It is continual, for the perfecting of the saints and for the
work of ministry. That is why the testimony (evidence) of Jesus in the
Church is the spirit of prophecy (Rev 19:10).
You don’t have such
evidence, and what God has given us through dreams, visions, and by other
supernatural means, you reject. Those who deny the power of God, God will
deny. Those who deny Jesus before men, Jesus will deny. The prophetic is the
evidence that Jesus lives and walks amidst His people. He speaks to His own
and they hear His voice (Jn 10). You have not yet learned to recognise His
voice.
Idolatry and Blasphemy
To place a portrait of
Herbert Armstrong on your cover says it all about how you idolise the man.
You have elevated him to the idolatrous position of Supreme Pontiff over the
Church. Shortly after we were thrust out of the WCG, when God showed us what
was wrong with that system of ‘worship’ we renounced that idolatry. It was
blasphemy.
It
placed HWA in the position of Christ, as Head over His Church. No longer was
Jesus the Mediator, Master, Lord, Guide, Revelator, Shepherd and Deliverer,
but those appellations were subtly transferred to HWA as the sole spiritual
director of the organisation. He didn’t openly claim such positions of
course, but he
assumed them through his psychological cultic conditioning of members, and
was granted such honours by members who knew no better:
“...so that he sits as
God, in the temple of God...” (2 Thes 2:4).
No different from the man of
sin to fill up this papal iniquity at the end, shortly ahead.
The problem with all this is
one that is very subtle, but very damaging spiritually. It allows demons to
take control away from the Spirit of Christ. It happens where the man usurps
Jesus’ offices and prerogatives, whether intentionally or not.
When people are pointed to
the man, like you are doing, instead of being pointed to Christ, they are
cheated of the fulness of the relationship Jesus wants to give them.
You say on page 4 that
“government must flow from God Himself down to His people...” Absolutely
correct! But the means you don’t know. You block the means of that spiritual
flow – the supernatural spiritual gifts of God.
You continue on the same way
you have always been used to in the WCG and the CoGs – denying the power of
God, and calling the supernatural gifts of tongues, interpretation of
tongues, prophesying, healings, working of miracles etc., that are seen
widely in charismatic circles as bogus. But like I said before, if you think
that evidence is counterfeit, that is sure proof that the authentic is there
as well.
If you want to learn the
truth now, this subject is in An Introduction To The Spiritual Gifts
and Holy Fire! enclosed.
The truth about HWA
In 1992 or 1993 (I can’t
remember exactly now) God spoke to Richard as we were sitting talking in our
lounge one evening. He gave him a vision of heaven. He saw God’s throne and
Jesus there. He saw angels praising God and some other amazing things. But
he was also told things about HWA that were ‘kind’ to our rather
HWA-supportive ears at that time. God said this to Richard:
"In the past, Herbert
Armstrong did some things that I wanted done, but most of what he did, he
did himself, in his own strength. He didn't submit his life to Me so that I
could use him mightily.
"On one of the many
occasions I tried to guide him, he was travelling somewhere by car. On this
journey, he wasn't intending on going where I wanted him to go. Because he
didn't listen to Me, as he was driving, I had to commission an angel to
force the car to turn so that he would go where I wanted him to go.
"There are some who worship
the man and adore him more than they adore Me. Such people will say this
incident shows Herbert Armstrong was a man of God. What they overlook is
that I had to force him to make a decision which I wanted him to
make.
"A person is not of Me just
because I was manifest in his life once or twice. A person is of Me if he
submits to Me, and when he submits to Me you will see appropriate fruits in
his life. However, the fruits I consider most important aren't what many
people think they are. It is wrong to think that right doctrines constitute
those fruits. That is a blasphemy against My Holy Name.
"I'll tell you what are
My fruits. The signs mentioned in Mark 16 will accompany those who believe -
miracles, healings, raising the dead, and casting out demons. All of these
flow through love, the most important fruit of all. The devil cannot
manifest himself in love, because he is not love, but he does know all right
doctrine from My Word." (From A Message To Philadelphians, pp 9,10.)
God was being kind to us in
the way He evaluated HWA’s life and achievements. Like you, we thought that
HWA was a wonderful man of God. We had learned some truth through him, so we
held him in such high esteem! But we didn’t get offended to know that what
we had formerly believed was not all truth, and that some was in radical
need for reformation. We willingly and humbly accepted what God was saying.
He was able to move us further forward spiritually.
That’s what He wants for
you, too.
Some errors in your book
Just What is an Apostle?
1. On page 4, your concept
of “The True Church itself!” is an old untrue dogma and needs radical
revision. Chapter 1 of God’s Church – Whose Authority? provides more
truth on that. I thought I had sent you one previously, so if the
publications enclosed duplicate what you have already please be kind enough
to return them or give us a donation to cover our costs on your behalf.
Thanks.
2. Page 7. Top para.
Ministerial ‘ranks’, as you view them, are not ranks but appointments of
function, to provide specific areas of service to the body of Christ for
spiritual benefit. God’s Church – Whose Authority? and A Message
To Philadelphians will help you obtain a better grasp of the correct
biblical concept that has become lost through deception. There is much in
there to explain right and wrong authority in the church.
3. Also p 7, top para. You
mention 2 Tim 1:6 as a reference to support your false claim about ranks
through the laying on of hands. However, the specific gift which was
imparted through the laying on of hands to Timothy was not that of being an
elder or evangelist. You have misapplied that text. It says that this gift (charisma)
was something placed IN him, as are all the supernatural gifts of the
Spirit. It was almost certainly a prophetic gift – the ability to prophesy –
to allow the Holy Spirit to give him words within, which he could then speak
out. Hence the reference to not holding back through timidity in verse 7. It
is hard prophesying, because others often don’t want to know, and tend to
mock the things given by the Spirit.
4. Page 8. You claim that
“such Truth is only available via revelation [that is true so far]
specifically given to such an apostle through the power of God’s
Holy Spirit.” The last part of that is not true. That would make me an
apostle then, if that were true, because we have been given revelation for
many people, and that revelation has been attested to and confirmed by
independent witnesses in other countries who received specific revelations
from God that HE has indeed revealed truth to us and guided us in writing
that in our publications. It would also make some other people apostles, who
are not, simply because they had received specifically given revelation of
Truth from God through the Spirit.
5. Page 10, last para. “God
must always be the One who sends a true apostle.” You omitted the apostle’s
complement – the true prophet. He is also appointed and sent by God, never
by man. I was not appointed by man, which is why you don’t accept me. I was
delivered by God from the controls of man-dominated religion, called and
appointed by Him, to which many revelations testify, and we have signs and
wonders following our ministry as Jesus promised (Mark 16:20).
6. Page 12, top para. You
omitted the fact that the prophets were the ones who received from God in
that situation (Acts 13:3), and they appointed the apostles in accord with
the Spirit’s direction. The sending out by the Holy Spirit in verse 4, which
you are so keen to mention, was through the prophets. But you reject
prophets. You only accept part of the Word of God – the parts which suit
you.
7. Page 12, para 5. You
quote Rev 2:2 – the church which tested false apostles, to perceive their
falseness. That’s what you need to do. If you had done so with HWA, you
would have found him to be false, too, because of his spiritual fruits which
were evil. What he did he did for selfish ends; to elevate himself. He set
up a large organisation that glorified him; to lord it over others; to
dominate them through cultic conditioning and a repressive hierarchy. He
squelched individual development except as that benefited him and what he
had founded. He denied the working of the power of God through individual
members. He opposed the gifts of the Spirit because they would have
undermined his power and control. He didn’t test prophecies, let alone allow
them (1 Thes 5:21). He despised such things (1 Thes 5:20). He quenched the
Spirit (1 Thes 5:19). You are still following his example, quenching the
Spirit and denying the Spirit’s gifts. You will never know much of
the power of God because you have substituted faith in Jesus with faith in a
mere man whom you have been duped to believe was His only sent
representative. Testing The Spirits explains how to do it.
8. Page 13. Your exposition
on the end-time Elijah is totally awry. To interpret the fulfilment of
Malachi’s prophecy through just one man is to completely ignore all that God
is doing in lands where that man would or could never be heard. China,
Indonesia, Malaysia and other countries of the Far East have experienced
substantial moves of the Holy Spirit in our time. Yet in none of those was
‘your apostle’ ever involved, or remotely associated with them. Read Like
A Mighty Wind by Mel Tari and you can learn about how God moved through
His Work of ‘Elijah’ in Indonesia. To take other examples, Derek Prince took
the gospel for more than 50 years to many countries through radio and
personal evangelism. His outreach reached millions that the WCG didn’t, and
encompassed far more countries and ten times as many languages as the
international outreach of the WCG at its zenith. He reached into China, too.
Then there is Terry Law in his World Compassion Ministries who is one
of many who have done much evangelism in China, Russia, and other Asian
countries. Then there’s Reinhard Bonnke, who has evangelised most of black
Africa over the past 30+ years – fulfilling a prophecy and vision given when
he was a mere boy in Germany. His ministry is attested to by miraculous
signs and wonders wherever he preaches to the masses in Africa. People are
healed, blind eyes opened, deaf ears unstopped, cripples made whole, and all
sorts of Holy Spirit miracles occur, as demons are cast out, and witchcraft
items are burned. Signs and wonders never accompanied the work of HWA,
because he rejected the power of the Spirit. You need to get real! The work
of Elijah is not the work of one man by any means! It’s the work of the
Spirit of God, as the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy (Rev
19:10). It’s explained more in Who Is The End-Time
Elijah?
9. Page 13. “The existence
of this end-time apostle...” is a major false premise, a dogma upon which
you have founded your erroneous thesis. How could the one man whom you
suggest, reach all nations with the gospel, when he did not bridge the
language barrier in many countries? He didn’t do it while he was alive, and
he certainly isn’t going to do it while dead! God doesn’t use the dead
(unless He resurrects them first). He is the God of the living not the dead.
There are billions on earth that your apostle never reached, and can never
reach, even if you put his prejudiced and error-ridden writings on the web!
Only a few can be reached through the web. Media publicity will reach far
more when God does it His way! Furthermore, it is preposterous to suggest
that HWA was the only one through whom God established or restored the
doctrinal foundations for the end-time. Early in our ministry, God confirmed
in a vision to Helena that He was going to do just that through MM’s
publications (Dreams and Visions From God, pp 17-22). In that vision
she saw me concreting foundations by the clock tower in Market Square in
Aylesbury. The clock is a symbol of the time in God’s plan; it is late. And
the public place is an allusion to the publicity that will come our way
through God’s miraculous outpouring.
10. Page 15. Your massive
omission of prophets from this living, continuing foundation.
11.
Page 16. Again, your wrong assumption in the last paragraph is based upon
incomplete hand-me-down teaching from the WCG that you still accept as dogma
– that HWA was the one individual to whom all end-time true believers should
look – and venerate.
12. Page 17, 2nd para. Your
use of Eph 3:5 is dismissive of prophets, as I have already mentioned, yet
you quote in bold “as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and
prophets by the Spirit.” It is deceitful and wrong to take away from the
intended meaning of the Word of God. Those who teach wrongly will be held
very accountable for misleading others!
13. Page 19, 2nd para. You
totally overlook and ignore the means by which Jesus gave His apostles their
platform for preaching back then, and by which means He still operates
today. Rom 15:18-20, which you quote there, mentions two little words in the
middle “so that...” They refer back to the miraculous signs and wonders
which God performed, grabbing people’s attention, enabling the gospel to go
to a listening audience. But you reject those signs and wonders today. CoGs,
like the WCG before her, reject the miraculous testimony of other non CoG
evangelists, claiming they are all bogus on account of their doctrinal
errors. Not so! Read A Message To Law-Keepers after you have read
A Message To Worldwiders and A Message To Sabbatarians, to find
out how God works. You don’t understand God’s mind nor the way He works
through many people.
14. Page 19. Again at the
foot of that page you revert back again to the exclusivist dogma of just one
apostolic servant of God. Exclusivism is based upon pride. It is arrogant
and presumptuous to promote such a prejudicial teaching. It is also hostile
towards others whom God uses. Hence, you are hostile to us, because you
won’t relinquish your pride.
15. Page 21, 3rd para. You
say: “If we are not close to God...” How do you know whether you are close
to God? This is an oft-used, but little understood statement. If you were
close to God, you would have humility (Is 57:15; 66:2) which you don’t. You
would be teachable; you would not be trying to assert your ‘correctness’
against my input; you would be receiving dreams from God to give you
guidance as to what to do in your outreach. There would be signs and wonders
following after your ministry. As it is, you are spiritually dead, just as
it says in Rev 3:1. You have the name – that is all – but not the evidence.
There is no spiritual substance to your ministry. It is empty words without
spiritual depth or authentic miraculous back-up.
16. Page 28, 2nd para. You
repeat the erroneous claim that the only prophets intended in Eph are the OT
prophets.
17.
Page 29, 2nd para. You quote Rom 12:6-8 which is good. It’s a pity you don’t
accept or understand prophesying or prophecy which Paul mentions there – the
gift which Timothy received from Paul through the laying on of hands. That
text also mentions that the working of such grace gifts from God are
dependent upon the level of faith a person has. That’s something you don’t
teach, either. You need to increase your faith. Faith – Raising Our Level
of Expectation explains that you should seek greater giftings and how to
do so.
18. Page 30, last para. You
say: “The grace to lay foundations within the Church is specifically given
to apostles [and prophets] – not the general ministry or membership.” You
missed out those two vital words inserted in square brackets. Is that
deliberate dishonesty on your part, or ignorance? Whether it is the former
or the latter, it is due to your pride. You want to be noticed, to be heard,
to be listened to, because you think you are important.
Your silence over the years,
and refusal to acknowledge what we have sent you occasionally, is also mute
testimony to the consideration of your own conceited concept of
pre-eminence. But if God meant you to have pre-eminence – not for your own
sake, just as it is not for ours – He would honour His appointment upon your
life and ministry with signs just as He has honoured ours. Everything He
does is done for His Word’s sake, His truth’s sake, His sake. We are merely
servants. But you want to be an overlord, looked up to, considered for your
own vanity’s sake and for the sake of the pride you still have in the old
dogmas, the old traditions, and the old man now dead (HWA).
19.
Page 44, 1st para. “...we have seen [no, you have asserted, that’s all] that
the True Church of God must remain subject to the specific apostle God sends
to them...” If that were true, then if the man later turns out to be false,
people are giving their loyalties to Satan. Ecclesiastical hierarchy is a
satanic substitute for true government of the Spirit. We are not to be
subject to a man in a hierarchic position, but to the Spirit. That is why
Paul said to only follow him as he followed Christ, and why in Eph 5:21 we
are all exhorted to submit to one another “in the fear of God.” You don’t
seem to understand what that means. It doesn’t mean what you assert – that a
member’s fear of God is demonstrated by how he submits or is subject to what
a hierarchic mentor says. It means that if you are God-fearing, you are
obliged to submit to what anyone else in the Church says, as they are guided
by the Spirit.
Your
supposition leads to apostasy. True government of the Spirit leads to
spiritual vibrancy.
Consider the case of one
mentioned earlier, Derek Prince. He was the apostolic voice whom God used to
reach many in China, possibly millions, and bring them to Christ. They
received the Spirit and their lives became transformed. According to you,
all those people are meant to be subject to him, even though they might
later come to know further truth through others. Derek Prince didn’t have
all truth. He didn’t have the knowledge of the Sabbaths correct, but despite
that God used him to bring many to Christ.
Your
supposition is false because it is based on the error of human hierarchy in
the Church. It is telling people to be subject to a man, not to be subject
to God through His Spirit. This is a subtle but very ruinous heresy. It is
responsible for creating cults, where people become man-followers, occlude
the Spirit, and shut their minds to other true servants of God. In those
cults, they end up worshipping the founder of the cult, not the God whom he
pretends to represent.
20. On page 44, last para,
you say, “...the only office greater than prophet is that of an
apostle.” I have underlined the misleading word. It is not sufficiently
defined, and can mislead, because it gives the impression to those whose
minds you are conditioning to your insistence on hierarchic subservience,
that the apostle holds greater power or authority and a final say
over a prophet in the Church. That’s not so, as I have explained above in
several places using different angles. That is human power, not divine
power. Divine power and authority is what we are meant to wield – over
demons, over sickness, and even on occasion over death (Luke 9:1,2). It
accompanies true preaching of the gospel (ibid.). But you are promoting the
exertion of human power over others – to put it bluntly: telling them what
to do or what they should believe. That’s wrong because Jesus defined
greatness in terms of humility and childlikeness (Matt 18). The power you
promote is an illicit power in the Church and hence one which allows false
ministers great sway, which is why the WCG was finally brought crashing
down.
Let
me elaborate on what I said above about this misconception: “the apostle
holds greater power or authority...” The only time that is true is
“in the fear of God”, according to Eph 5:21. He has no intrinsic power or
authority – of himself, humanly, which is what you imply – even though he is
appointed by God. Power and authority is ONLY derived from the Spirit.
That is the true source of
proper biblical leadership in the Church, not men in perceived positions of
authority. The latter is human, and no different from the government of the
Beast. Hence, hierarchic authority is not the government of God in the
Church, but an image to the Beast (Rev 13:14).
21. Page 45, 2nd para. You
quote “My messenger” from Mal 3:1. That is not a single person but the
Spirit of God – Jesus in Spirit. He is the Messenger behind all human
messengers. Explained in Who Is The End-Time
Elijah?
God would be defeating His
objective of causing people to come to worship Him through Christ if He only
sent one human messenger. That human messenger would become lifted up and
idolised, which is precisely what has happened through the blasphemous
doctrine you are promoting. Only God is to be venerated. We need to be much
more careful to revere Him and not any man.
22. Page 51, under Are
Miracles Required? your explanation is completely inadequate and
incomplete. John did no miracles because he was not to take one iota away
from Christ’s ministry, but point completely to Him. He decreased utterly so
that Jesus could increase.
If no miracles were meant to
accompany the work of Elijah that continued after Jesus left, then the
disciples would not have performed any either. It’s ludicrous to suggest
that just because John performed none, none will be performed in our day.
And contemporary witness completely refutes your supposition! There are
millions of miracles occurring in the name of Jesus all around the world!
They’re happening all the time. Why don’t you read about the raisings from
the dead for starters, instead of denying all this? And don’t use the
pathetic and dangerous excuse that these miracles aren’t authentic, or are
counterfeit because they are done by those who “don’t believe like we do
about keeping the Sabbath”. God looks on the heart – to the spirit or
attitude – more than to what is in your intellect, which is why the
Pharisees had no miraculous testimony to ‘boast’ about. They were so proud
of what they thought they had, that they lost even what they first had. Many
ended up committing the unpardonable sin because they wouldn’t humble
themselves to recognise the working of God in their midst through the
miraculous power. It hurt their pride too much, so they rejected the power
and rejected God who gave it!
You are in danger of doing
the same thing. Jesus said: “The miracles I do in My Father’s name speak for
Me, but you do not believe because you are not My sheep” (John 10:25,26
NIV). So important are the miracles that He said: “...even though you do not
believe Me, believe the miracles, that you may learn and understand...” (Jn
10:38, NIV.) Jesus does the same miraculous feats today – and MORE (Jn
14:12) – through His Work of Elijah, because He is the same today as He was
then (Heb 13:8).
You don’t accept the
miracles that Jesus does through others, because it defies your dogma that
He could only possibly do them through you or the ones whom you mistakenly
think are His servants. If you don’t relinquish this false dogma, you will
end up doing what the Pharisees did in their obdurate pride, rejecting Jesus
and blaspheming the Holy Spirit by rejecting His power.
To those who followed
powerless preachers in their error, like you and Armstrong, Paul warned:
“...having a form of godliness but denying its power... from such people
turn away” (2 Tim 3:5).
You have overlooked a most
central facet of the working of a true apostle – miraculous signs and
wonders (2 Cor 12:12). That is not just devious and deceitful, but
absolutely reprehensible in the light of all the contemporary testimony! It
seems you want to believe lies, rather than the truth. It appeals to your
pride.
I won’t take the time to
detail any more of the scurrilous errors in your book. You’ve got more than
enough here to see that you are in gross error and darkness – if you can
accept the correction, which I highly doubt, based upon the dreams which God
has given us about you and Judy. I would like to be proven wrong, but that’s
entirely up to you.
I’ve taken an awful long
time detailing all this for you. If I didn’t care for you I wouldn’t have
done it, but the truth is we do care for you, and much more so does God. He
wants you to be a part of His Kingdom, but with such conceit you cannot
enter at the moment.
In closing, I will mention
the dreams which God gave about you. They are prophetic, being indicators of
what you would do, how you would respond, before the events. They prove that
God not only knows you inside out, but that He communicates to His prophets
today, and gives them to you as a sign that He is speaking to you right now.
It’s not just ‘old me’.
Nos 65 and 78 in The
Bible Speaks Vol 3 that I sent you previously, would help you, if you
can accept what is there.
May you be willing to humble
yourself before God, lay down your pride, and relinquish the false dogmas
that you are promulgating that bring people further into spiritual bondage
to a man instead of to Christ.
A few dreams from God about
you, and some others (from our dream diaries)
5th November 1999.
M. Dream of Jon Bowles.
I was working at my desk in the office when Jon crept past along the
landing corridor, hoping I wouldn’t notice him. He was going to the
bathroom to get washed, but it was locked and he couldn’t get in.
Meaning:
Jon is seeking to move ahead spiritually, but he wouldn’t have any truth
from us. He wants to get washed without me noticing. But why hide? Why
not be transparent and be willing to converse with us? If he’s intent on
salvaging his self-esteem or pride, it won’t work. He won’t be able to
access the things of God. We all need washing by the water of God’s
Word, but humility is the greatest key that unlocks God’s water to us.
The dream depicts how you
have realised there is a need to move ahead and get cleaned up spiritually,
but at the moment, the way you are going about it is getting you nowhere.
The means to get cleaned up is locked to your understanding.
Furtively creeping past my
office depicts how you have tried to go it alone without taking notice of
what we have written, and not wanting to have contact with us. Because of
that prideful spirit of independence, you can’t benefit from what God is now
revealing and doing.
2nd Dec 2001. M.
Jon Bowles. (Recorded 2-12-01.)
This dream about a CoG minister represents all who are trapped by the
dogmas and restrictive teaching in CoGs. Jon was at a college [depicts
spiritual immaturity and his need for more information, to educate him;
he’s still got a lot further to go; he hasn’t yet emerged into the adult
spiritual environment] and I wanted to take a gift to him. It was a
caravan that I wanted to give him. [Represents the large size of the
truth we want to pass on to him. We don’t want anything for it; we are
willing to give this to him.] He made the excuse that he
couldn’t accept this largesse because it was Friday the 13th. [Satan
holds him back through human evils and error.]
He wrote me a paper
discounting the revelation we had been given on the Greek phrase mia
ton sabbaton, but it really proved nothing. It was a shallow rehash
of what their group has always taught on the subject (so that they
wouldn’t need to change anything). It was not objective and was
completely unfactual, inaccurate and worthless.
Meaning:
The Churches of God are spiritually shallow, their teaching is worthless
from the point of view of taking them higher spiritually. There are huge
demonic strongholds in these groups, which is why they oppose us so
much, and will not objectively consider the new aspects of knowledge and
understanding God has given us. The roots of all this are pride and
arrogance. Only when they are humbled (many of them through the events
of the Great Tribulation) will they be able to perceive the mercies and
beauty of God and accept all His truth. (An analysis of the fact that
the CoG is dead is given in Newsletter 16, pages 8-14.)
16th Aug 2003. M. 2)
The Antiquated Church of God mentality.
I heard a car pull up outside. I peeped out of the window to see who it
might be and I saw an old Morris Minor estate (about 30 years old) had
pulled up on the main road. It was Jon Bowles. Because I wasn't dressed
(it was early morning), I didn't go out to meet him, but Helena did. I
went in the bathroom to get ready. Later, I saw him bringing some farm
equipment onto our property. It was also the Sabbath when he was doing
this. I was unable to stop him.
Meaning:
The car represents the CoGs with their antiquated theology and practice.
Coming here with his farm equipment symbolises how such people will want
to bring along their old ways of doing things, particularly in worship
meetings on the Sabbath. And the fact that he was bringing this stuff in
on the Sabbath is an indicator that they do not keep the Sabbath
properly in the Spirit; their obedience is merely in the flesh. They
need the moving of the Spirit! They need to welcome the Spirit and move
in spiritual gifts instead of traditional Spirit-dead (human) ways.
Combining this with other dreams, it indicates that when such people
make contact with us they will want to continue down their
traditional route, rather than learn from us. Prejudices, dogmas and
selfishness keep them attached to the old junk in their spiritual lives.
18th August 2003. M.
Two raised from the dead.
I was dreaming that I had a dream. In that dream the power of God had
come upon me to restore life to young people who had died [sounds a bit
peculiar, but that's to emphasise that the meaning is not literal in
this instance, but that figuratively two people are raised from the
dead]. I think they were both boys – teenagers. [This depicts two
people, whose letter arrived later that day.] They were connected in
some way with the WCG. The details were not clear, but it seemed that
they had drowned. In that dream I had prayed for them to be restored to
life and they had come back to life. As the power of God worked the
miracle, I felt a surge of power come through me. It was exhilarating
and I knew the miracle had occurred, even though I was not physically
present. I was some miles away. (For obvious reasons. The WCG is so full
of demons, and those people are so demonically infested, that it would
be impossible to raise the dead while those demons are present. First,
the demons have to be cast out before such a miracle can occur.) Because
of this separation by distance, those people would not have known why
those boys came back to life. They would not have known that it was
because of 'my' prayer, so I wanted to see if some people could get
independent verification and confirmation of what had taken place. Then,
they could fit the two together -- 'my' prayer for restoration of life,
and the restoration of life to the dead boys. With that connection made,
they would then be in a position to acknowledge our ministry. The
miracle is meant to point people to the power in the Word. And that Word
is contained in our literature. I didn't write it by myself! Nor was
'my' prayer merely mine. It was part of the outflow from God's Spirit.
Helena's dream:
She saw several wire cages. People were tied up inside those wire cages.
She went to one of them and released the people. They were glad to come
out and taste new freedom. The dream depicts a couple whose letter
arrived the morning after this dream, as does my dream above. The WCG
psychologically controls and ties people down. Helena has been used by
God as an intercessor, praying for people's release. They are now
benefiting and can taste a new spiritual freedom.
23rd August 2003. M.
1) Supply cables stolen! I was about to move in to our new
ministry premises, but the previous owner had nicked the overhead power
supply cable. It was lead (the heavy metal, lead) and was an inch or
more in diameter. (It must have been worth quite a bit of money!) Since
it was not legally considered part of the property, the owner felt
justified in taking it, although it was totally against the spirit of
the transaction. It was a nasty act of selfishness. It would cost me
some £50,000 to replace what had been taken!
Meaning:
This work has cost us dearly! Our present debts are more than £50K. The
dream symbolises how those who should have been providing
our finance (primarily CoGs) have selfishly cut us off and, through
their ministers’ controlling rhetoric, have robbed us of money that
ought to have come to us for God's Work of release (also depicted by
50).
2) I was using my
white van, making things ready so we could move ahead. Behind me was a
garage at another property. There were pieces of overhead canopy or some
other bits and pieces of building materials left over. We were looking
to see what we could use to replace the missing 50k's worth of overhead
supply cable. I noticed these sections of prefabricated canopy and
thought we could find a use for them.
Meaning:
We have to make use of 'bits and pieces' that come our way, and
incorporate them in what God is having us do in His name.
I had stopped my van
and parked it outside the garage, thinking that I shouldn't really be
parking in someone else's property. But then I realised that it was ours
now and I could park there. In fact, it would be a better idea to park
inside than outside because the vehicle would have some cover and
protection.
Meaning:
Future situation, and the new HQ place. Persecution is coming, and God
will provide a means of protection and cover for us.
3) Judgement
coming against the WCG and Churches of God. John Dunn, a former WCG
member, was living in a tiny little town house in the middle of a row of
terraced houses. He was about to move house. But driving back in his car
one day, something went seriously wrong and he crashed into his house,
seriously damaging it, even ruining it.
Meaning:
The Church of God to which JD belongs is spiritually shut in, with
little scope and of low spiritual quality. It is spiritually poor. [He
rejected us years ago, and dismissed our materials as of little worth.
By so doing, he chose to 'live' in his present spiritual house.] His car
crashing into the house is an allegory of what they are doing
spiritually. God brings the proud down, so it is part of God’s judgment
against them.
6th Sept 2003. M. 3
dreams. 1) Bindweed under the floor (explained in DD 24).
2) Judy Bowles.
(Personal for the recipient.)
3) The
supernatural means. (explained in DD 24.)
7th Sept. M.
Atomic bomb. This was the briefest of dreams, but I saw a man
showing others how easy it is to prime and prepare to detonate an atom
bomb. He was an amateur! [Forewarning of the present terrorist threat to
Britain.]
10th Sept 2003. M.
Humbling the lofty.
Everything that is
lifted up, will be brought down.
13th Sept 2003. M.
My pick-up was inside a large shed / warehouse. We were getting it ready
to deliver literature to others. There were three long lengths of
timber, like 3 x 2 planed, several metres long. Somehow they had got
burned at the ends, up to about a third or more of their length and so
they were now useless. They were still burning when I threw them down
onto the ground. As I did this, the smouldering ends broke away, and I
saw the red hot coals lying on the floor. My thought was of protecting
what was in the shed, so that nothing caught fire from these coals. Then
a voice said, "What thou hast done, thou hast done well."
Meaning:
This imagery represents three people whom we have had contact with, who
also run a prophetic ministry in the USA. It is a man, who is a prophet,
his wife, and his prophetess sister. About three weeks ago I sent them
each a packet of our literature. Each packet contained publications
specifically and individually chosen for them. Each of the three persons
received different booklets, challenging them to move on and embrace
further truth, which includes that of the Sabbaths, holy days, Church
government (they are very hierarchic, even militaristic in that) the
place of women in the Church, and
other salient truths. A total of 23 booklets were sent! (That is
significant, in itself. There is hypocrisy hidden here.)
A short while later
Helena received a dream predicting what their response would be.
This morning a bag
of their literature arrived in the post, at the same time as a dream
which Helena received showing that they were imposing themselves upon us
in an illicit way out of wrong motives. Truth is not highest on their
list of priorities. Promotion of their ministry is. The man is
behaving as an overlord, a cult leader, and seeks to elevate himself,
and uses manipulation to achieve his less than honourable ends. A spirit
of witchcraft is at work here! [This is included here because CoG
ministers behave similarly.]
After being
presented with further truth – to which they have not responded,
acknowledged, or accepted – the fire of God will burn them, and they
will be cast down to the ground – judged. They are now of less use to
God. He was a prophet. He prophesied daily (and still does). He
prophesies on short-wave radio in the USA, but his heart is not right
with God now, and he needs to make his peace with God.
"What thou hast done
thou hast done well" refers to the presentation of God's truth in our
publications, which is why God will use them to feed many of His people.
(By the way, for any who may misunderstand, I don't want recognition –
merely recognition for God's truth. THAT is all that matters.)
One
last thing, Jon. I had this dream below. Perhaps it depicts your desire
which you need to relinquish, because only those whom God appoints can be
properly used by Him. Unless God builds the house, the weary builders toil
in vain (Ps 127).
3rd August 2004. M.
2) Wheeling barrows uphill.
I was pushing a wheelbarrow up a very steep hill, tipping loads of soil
(or whatever the barrow contained) in various places. The distance
wasn't far, but the slope was very steep and it was hard work. It wasn't
easy, and took a lot of effort doing this! Some others didn't realise
how much effort it took, and thought that they could do the job. They
wanted to take over, but really they hadn't got whatever it took. As
they say in the vernacular, they "hadn't got a clue".
Meaning:
Some people who want 'glory' for themselves think that being a prophet
is 'glorious', but it's just plain hard work, and can be tedious or
monotonous. You have to plod away, pushing uphill, taking the
barrowloads of truth to the places where it is needed.
The differences between us
I ‘stumbled’ across this
letter below when starting to write to you. I don’t think it was any
coincidence. It is from a Kenyan pastor and highlights the major differences
between us:
28th
March 2004
Dear
Malcolm,
Thanks for your e-mail. Well, as I wrote to you lastly I told you that UCG
is not a spiritual church because there is no move of the Holy Spirit. As I
read your books and even newsletters and AWAKE publications, I noticed a
difference in faith. UCG doesn't believe on prophets even though they teach
on Bible Prophecy.
The
way the fellowship is being conducted is totally carnal. One is not allowed
to worship as the Spirit of God leads. Women's ministry is not in line with
your books "THE WOMAN QUESTION". Women's need not to teach in any
fellowship. No miracles, no interpretation of dreams, and many others. The
only area that your ministry is in line with UCG is the sabbath day and the
festivals of God but as well I noticed that your festivals occurrences dates
differs with the ones of UCG dates.
Therefore that is the reason why UCG and MIDNIGHT faith is different. I was
in the first place a Charismatic Believer and when I came across your books
I got the truth. I believe that God raised you to raise a new breed of
Christians that will practice and live by the whole counsel of the word of
God (Bible). I detected what I was lacking in the Charismatic movement i.e.
Sabbaths. You have as well a message to the Sabbatarians – they need the
move of the Holy Spirit.
Be
blessed. (Name withheld)
I hope all this can help
you, but that is entirely up to you.
Sincerely, in His love,
Malcolm
In Closing
The letter didn’t help him.
He rejected all ‘our’ input!
The above depicts the
spiritual limitations of our former friends. It applies to most people in
the CoGs. They have no real depth of spirituality, and so they are a
hindrance to spiritual progress and to our work for God.
Two can only walk
together if they are agreed, but CoG folks generally are set in their ways.
Their minds are made up, and there's not much we can do with them except
leave them to 'go back home'. Most won't move forward spiritually. There is
stubbornness there, with arrogance and self-will. God has to leave them in
that state until they acknowledge their sin and their need for His Spirit.
Malcolm B Heap, Aug
2005
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