Articles for the Benefit of Members and Ex-Members of the WCG

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14
Falsely Accused!

The devil is the accuser of the brethren (Rev 12:10). Those whom he influences bring false accusations against true servants of God in order to try and thwart what God is doing in the Church. You need to be aware of Satan's tactics, for the Church is his chief battleground!

As the doctrinal changes were being presented, there was speculation about how far the Tkach leadership would go in shifting formerly held positions. Most of these changes are now fact, no longer mere conjecture.

It is an accolade to Satan's ingenuity that the majority of WCG members are still with the church. Many members have left as a result of the cultural revolution that has taken place, but surprisingly, most members still remain. This has been achieved by careful presentation of new material and rigorous mind control.

Mind Control

Mind control, as I have said before, is the name of the game in the WCG. If minds can't be controlled by the ruling junta, the church loses is cohesion. The leaders know it would fall apart if they lost their control.

So, that is number one on their agenda – maintenance of hierarchic ministerial power. It is the unspoken first commandment of the WCG. Ministerial hegemony takes precedence. The first people to be ejected from the WCG are those who stand up against the ministry – for whatever reasons. That cannot be tolerated. Dissidents are ruthlessly blackened!

If you want the truth, and if you truly want to obey God and worship Him in spirit and in truth, you must come to realise that control of this sort is not godly. It is satanic. It prevents true worship in spirit and in truth! Satan was the first one who wanted absolute control. God gives mankind free moral agency. He doesn't coerce anyone into compliance with His will or His opinions. He waits for each person to give it.

Satan takes it. And that is what his stooges try to do in the church! The truth of the matter is, control is of the devil. Remember that. It's pivotal to discerning what is going on and why.

While doctrinal snakes were weaving their way into position in the WCG, some spoke out vehemently against such unbiblical teachings. WCG leaders under satanic sway took their stand against these people to thwart their protests. I know, because I was a casualty.

Forgive me for repeating it, but it is so important. Keeping control of people – to prevent what God wants to do – that is paramount on Satan's agenda. And he uses those under his control in church leadership to achieve his aims.

When a "dissident" speaks out, he must be silenced, or his words neutralised to eliminate or minimise their effect. Otherwise, Satan loses his control. That control is maximised if it can be achieved through church leaders. They are often his stooges.

Prophets are Dissidents

It is not normally recognised that the "dissident" can be, and often is, the voice speaking out for God. Jesus was a dissident in His day. Relatively few believed His words. They were too hard to stomach.

All the prophets of the Old Testament were dissidents. They had to dissent with the majority to deliver God's messages to them. For doing so, many of God's prophets were banished, victimised or murdered by those to whom they were sent. The ostensibly 'righteous' were the biggest persecutors of these men of God.

It is no different today. The prophets are victimised, ridiculed and abused. Such treatment is essential if the opposition is to continue to maintain their control over God's people.

Have you noticed that the majority don't even believe in prophets today? They have come to believe that prophets are a thing of the past, despite the fact that God says they are an integral part of His ministry gifts to the Church until it reaches ultimate maturity (Eph 4:11-13). Why do most not believe in, or accept, prophets of God at this time?

One reason is because of the prevalence of false prophets. But also there has been a satanically orchestrated campaign to discredit God's prophets before they come on the scene. Satan spreads lies that prophets are Old Testament phenomena, or that the New Testament versions ceased after the first century.

Satan is adept at neutralising what God is doing!

He is the traducer, the false accuser. He spreads lies and heresy. And the majority believe his lies.

History repeats itself with horrendous regularity. The Church of the first century was beguiled by Satan and dragged down by apostate views. The Church today has repeated the error. The only differences are in specifics. They vary, in order to mask the deception.

The Worldwide Church of God has become a twentieth century victim to some of the most pernicious satanic heresies.

Why Prophets Are 'Sent'

But, of course, God does not stand by idly while all this is going on. He doesn't let Satan have the complete victory. Whatever God allows, He does so for a reason. It sets up testing situations. God's people are tested. No one will enter the Kingdom of God untested. Everyone must be tried and put through the rigours of the purifying fires.

There are sheep and there are goats. Separation must occur and that separation is based upon response. God sees your response as the fiery trial does its testing work in you.

Part of the test involves facing the deception of the Adversary. Jesus faced him in the desert before beginning His ministry. He passed with perfect grades! He refused to relinquish any part of scripture. He also used it aggressively to whip Satan, resisting all of his alluring temptations which seemed the easy way out to the flesh. The best defence to the devil is OFFENCE!

But many children of God are too timid or submissive to church leaders to be able to attack the enemy and hit him in the vitals. Or, their spirituality is low and their discernment not sufficient for the task. So, heretical cancers spread.

Where God's people are not discerning enough to perceive the cunning of the Adversary, God provides a prophet to give direction. The prophets were always sent at times of intense crisis to forewarn of the spiritual dangers which people would not otherwise have perceived. They warned of apostasy and its results – punishment and / or collapse.

In the Old Testament these warnings were to the nation because God was dealing with Israel as a whole. In the New Testament God's caveats are to the Church. Revelation (2 & 3) contains several salient admonitions. They are constant reminders to God's people down through history of the repeated attacks of the enemy within.

The Worldwide Church of God is entering the throes of spiritual death at this juncture. To her, God warns:

These are the words of Him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. WAKE UP! Strengthen what remains, and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of My God. Remember therefore what you have received and heard; obey it and repent... (Rev 3:1-3, NIV).

How do such people receive and hear? Firstly, it is through those who are sent with the gospel (Rom 10:14,15). As they learn by themselves, it is through the Word of God recorded in the Bible. But, in the WCG, there is another factor which has great bearing on the members' spiritual progress. Minds are being contaminated by false teachers, so God sends a prophet to alert them to the dangers.

Satan also sends false prophets on the scene to confuse the issue. Some of these are William Dankenbring, Gerald Flurry, and Richard Scott. They are false because they are devoid of the Holy Spirit and are leading people astray after themselves. They are not pointing followers to Christ, to follow Him.

The Worldwide junta claims they are doing this, but it is a very subtle deception. They are not. They are destabilising people by undermining true spiritual foundations, by depriving them of true spiritual leadership, by denying the exercise of the supernatural gifts of the Spirit, and by maintaining their authoritarian grip over the church.

So, God raises up a prophet. How would you recognise such a person? Where did Jesus arise, the greatest Prophet of all time? From among His own people (Deut 18:15).

"But His own didn't receive Him," you may say. That's right. That's the test. It takes humility to be willing to concede that this person you have known has been raised up as God's mouthpiece to warn you, to help you, to deliver you.

Only in his home town and in his own house is a prophet without honour (Matt 13:57, NIV).

In his own house, spiritually speaking, he is without honour, too. When God appointed me as a prophet to the Worldwide Church of God in 1992, it was not something I desired. I would rather have run the other direction, but in a meeting in the Midlands, a visiting prophet from America picked me out of a crowd of 200 and prophesied to me that God was opening a dramatic door to me that He would cause me to walk through.¹

In November 1992, the Spirit of God caused me to prophesy this of the WCG:

...The time is coming when I will cut short your strength... so that you will see distress in my dwelling.

...I will send a curse upon you and I will curse your blessings... because you have not set your heart to honour Me.

...You have turned from the way and by your teaching you have caused many to stumble....

At that time these things had not happened. But they are happening now. You can pooh-pooh 'my' words and 'my' claims, but God will have the final say whether you recognise His prophets or not.

It was because of what God had in mind for His people in the WCG that I was falsely accused by Satan's stooges there – and this before God said "Go." Satan tried to thwart God's plan before He could activate it by slandering the one called to go.

What does God want to do? He wants the supernatural gifts of His Spirit to become a fact in the lives of Worldwiders. That is what Satan is resisting – the demonstration of God's power in your life which will witness for Him. WCG leaders don't have these gifts and they want to prevent you having them, too. That is why I am falsely accused.

Malcolm B Heap, February 98

¹ The wording of this prophetic utterance was recorded on tape and later transcribed. It is contained in the book An Introduction to the Spiritual Gifts, Part 2, Prophesying. See Publications of Midnight Ministries for more information.