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

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17
If You Are, or Were, in the WCG
READ THIS!

People wonder why I write articles about the WCG. What am I trying to 'prove'? What are my motives? Why do I still seem to have a bone of contention to pick with the WCG?

For those who don't understand, let me repeat, this is a war. It is an outgrowth of unresolved spiritual conflicts which certain WCG ministers began some seven or eight years ago.

I may be blamed for instigating this conflict, but the truth is the reverse. Worldwide ministers started the ball rolling when they tried to manipulate me and my wife into subjection to their views. Funnily enough, those views have nothing to do with theology or biblical precepts. But what came out of it all DOES have much to do with biblical precepts.

Authority is Not to Tear Down

My wife and I were thrown out of the WCG seven years ago because the ministers concerned felt threatened by our spirituality and the way we were helping others. That might sound remote, but it is the bizarre truth. A WCG minister became envious of our friendships in the church, and imputed sinister motives to these genuine friendships which were developing through mutual fellowship.

At the same time, this help we were offering people was often associated with what are unhelpfully labelled "alternative therapies". It didn't take much for the devil to implant in this minister's mind the suspicion that we were going off-beam and into areas where the devil holds sway. But, as most who are opinionated against something, he had not proved his supposition. It was mere conjecture. Yet he held to it religiously as if his life depended upon it.

So, feeling justified that should protect us from our 'foolishness' and 'ignorance', he looked for faults in us which the WCG leadership above him would accept as grounds for expulsion from the church. He was convinced that getting us out of the church would help us in the long run. He thought his authority was for that end - to 'help' people by imposing his views or the 'official' views of the church onto its members.

He had never read the Bible properly on that point. There is always room for some disagreement within any group, and church leaders do not have a mandate to dictate what must be believed and coerce or impose those standards on others. That is the devil's way, not God's.

I have explained in other writings that it is unbiblical and unethical for any man, whether minister or not, to hold power OVER others in a spiritual sphere. Spiritual power derives from God. It is bequeathed through the Holy Spirit. It is given to apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers for the edifying of the body of Christ (Eph 4:12,29). Authority is given for building up believers, not for tearing them down (2 Cor 10:8). [Explained in my book, God's Church - Whose Authority?]

When views are imposed upon others, under threat of expulsion or punishment of some kind, that is not building up the body, but tearing it down. That technique, whilst physically effective (as proven by former Church Inquisitions) is not godly. It does not create harmony, trust, true fellowship and good character. After it is exercised in the extreme, what you are left with is a group of believers held together by fear, wracked with suspicion and distrust, and devoid of true Christian character.

That technique is the way to destroy the Church, not create it. Yet it was the technique WCG ministers employed to try and subjugate me and my wife.

Looking back now it was all so silly. They only had to talk sensibly to us, instead of trying to grind us into the dirt by their authoritarianism, and they would probably have been surprised at how co-operative I would have been! But God didn't want that. His business is not that of creating harmony at this time. Jesus permits division to highlight weaknesses that need to be addressed.

Had the WCG hierarchy been sensible and meek in their dealings with me in 1990, I would have complied readily with their wishes. We could easily have reached agreement, because I have always been a co-operative person when I am persuaded of something's correctness, and I was very supportive of the WCG at that time. But that was not the outcome God wanted. It would have been too harmful for the ultimate good of those in the WCG. God had something else in mind which I didn't know about then. Deliverance and spiritual progress were on His agenda.

First He allowed us to be stabbed in the back by our brothers, and then 'sold into slavery' like Joseph's brothers rejected him. We were cast out and left for dead. We had to face several years of isolation. Joseph did, too. It taught him there was only one direction he could look, and only One Person on whom he could rely.

When his brothers were ready for their humbling, God brought them back to Joseph where they begged him for the help which he was only able to give, to keep them alive. These were times of gruelling straitness for Joseph's brothers. They were no longer the cocky, arrogant yobs they had been 14 or 15 years earlier. Now it was their turn to suffer and learn what it was like to be whipped 'unfairly'!

God has His ways of turning the tables.

Delivering the Oppressed

There is a parallel to this story in what has transpired in my life, but I won't spell it out. More is yet to occur, and if you keep your eyes open you will see it.

About a year after we were abused, falsely accused and chucked out of the WCG, God spoke to me cryptically one morning. He woke me up earlier than usual and kept repeating over and over in my mind the words Jeremiah 22, Jeremiah 22, Jeremiah 22, Jeremiah 22, Jeremiah 22... etc.

At first I didn't know what to make of this. I had never had a 'voice' in my head before. You hear of those who hear 'voices' and mostly they are off their rockers or under severe demonic bombardment. But this was not demanding, although it was persistent.

Even though I read all of Jeremiah 22, I still was not sure what God was trying to tell me. I mused on it for some while, but it was months later when He spoke again that He made it clearer what He meant. He highlighted these words to me:

... deliver the plundered out of the hand of the oppressor... (Jer 22:3, NKJV).

He also made it clear in my mind what He meant. He was telling me that there were severely plundered people trapped in Worldwide (and now also trapped in other cults that have broken away from the mother church). Spiritually, these poor folks are blinkered. They have been oppressed and that spiritual oppression has robbed them of the freedoms they should be able to enjoy in Christ. It has also robbed them of the riches that are obtainable when freed to see that outside their deceptive "bubble" there are other Spirit-led teachers, evangelists, prophets, apostles and pastors from whom they can learn. They don't have all truth, but they have some, and if you are willing to be open-minded and search, you can find much to uplift, edify and enlighten in several quarters.

Jesus came that we might have life and have it more abundantly. It is the devil who comes to steal away the abundance God offers us through His Spirit (Jn 10:10). Worldwide, despite some good points, did much unfortunately, to restrict people and deny them the freedoms that Christ offers through the Spirit. They denied their people true abundance.

God is now saying "Come out! Enjoy the fruits of true spirituality that I am offering you. Taste the benefits of worshipping in the spirit. Receive My supernatural spiritual gifts. Don't be shackled any more by the lies of men who have held you down, who have oppressed you and denied your full spiritual expression. Set yourself free."

It's up to you. You don't have to willingly submit to illicit spiritual restrictions and even abuse. It may seem harder to free yourself from the shackles of following men, but it is the best and only true way - if you want to come out and follow God.

People thought that my wife and I would either wither and die spiritually after we were thrust out of the church, or that we would soon be back, bowing down to the wishes of 'higher command'.

What they never appreciated was why I joined Worldwide in the first place. I was only 16 when I first learned "the truth" (those aspects of it I understood then). I fought tooth and nail to withstand my family's strong Methodist tradition, so I could adhere to what God had shown me in His Word. It was not men I followed when I joined Worldwide in 1968. It was God. He was the One who called me, and He had His reasons for calling me into the WCG.

So, when men ejected me 22 years later, I realised it was another favourable development, once I was able to see what God was doing through it all. It was a step forward, not in reverse. And no one would persuade me to come crawling back into a lesser spiritual environment to give obeisance to hirelings! It is God I serve and obey, and God I worship, not man.

But I have compassion for those whose psychology is bent by WCG indoctrination and habit. I feel for former friends and those whom I never met but still feel an affinity with, because they are my brothers and sisters in the faith. They have things to learn, as we all do, so I don't look down on them for their present position. Some of the greatest characters in the Bible are those who have been most trapped by the devil. Mary Magdalene had seven demons cast out of her, but she was the first one Christ appeared to after His resurrection. What an honour! It shows how much God loves those who turn around with all their heart.

And I know that there are many devout, well-meaning, God-fearing people inside the WCG, who are there for various reasons. Some are trapped through blindness. They don't realise church leaders are promoting serious heresies. They don't have the perception or knowledge of the scriptures to be able to sift through the changes and separate truth from error.

Then there are those who are still there because they don't know what else to do. They don't know where else they can go. They attend out of habit, and long-standing habits are hard to change.

The "better-the-devil-you-know than the-devil-you-don't-know" syndrome holds some in. Others still consider it a mark of loyalty to remain inside, even if they don't agree with what is taught. And there are some of the old-guard who still believe that it is God's Church and that God won't let His Church go seriously astray. Or, if error enters, He will correct that error through the leadership. They still believe this fallacy which has no support in scripture (3 Jn 9,10;1 Tim 4).

I repeat God's words to you from Isaiah 52:

Awake! Awake! O Zion.... free yourself from the chains on your neck, O captive daughter.

Wake up! Trim your lamps, the time is late. A Midnight Cry is going forth (Matt 25), and I will continue to speak out as God directs me.

Malcolm B Heap,  February 98