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

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19
WCG: The Basis of Your Belief

There have been drastic changes in the Worldwide Church of God in recent years. But how few really see how pernicious they are!! Do you? Think about this!

Have you been perceptive enough to see what that is?

For all the WCG failings in earlier years, there was one fundamental 'glue' which held believers together in the church. It was commendable. There was a zeal for truth.

That zeal, without the guidance of the Spirit, did give rise to aberrations in behaviour, though. So, the church was not without its crackpots and religious zealots. But where members sought and submitted to the Spirit of God, their zeal for truth gave them a reason for being and a reason for believing which was good. If that Spirit-led zeal could have been separated from WCG exclusivist leaning, the church would have been almost an ideal model in an imperfect world.

The foundation of belief in the WCG in the earlier decades was a love for truth. The truth of Jesus Christ.

What has happened in recent years, however, is the antithesis. The new leadership does not espouse a love of truth, despite their feigned 'noises' to the contrary. Those noises are lies!

What is taking place is a clever cover-up, deceitful scheming, a conspiracy to erode truth at its foundations. And gullible believers cannot see beneath the sham. They are being deceived wholesale. What is behind this facade?

Looking Behind the Facade

Paul described the mystery of lawlessness in his day. He knew it was around then. He used the word "mystery" because it is unseen by most. It deludes the majority. They cannot see beneath the facade of deception.

For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work ( 2 Thes 2:7, NKJV).

But there is also to be an end-time fulfilment which would affect every Christian upon earth. This will have its major fulfilment in the great false prophet mentioned in Revelation 13:11-13, Revelation 16:13 and Revelation 20:10.

And then the coming of the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish... (2 Thes 2:8-10, NKJV).

The Catholic pope is the main contender for this spurious honour (not the present one, there will come one more who will be evil, unlike the present pope).

Serious students of Bible prophecy soon come to realise that there are several fulfilments of what God predicts. The system we live in comes up with replicas of the major fulfilments. This is not surprising because human beings behave similarly even though circumstances and situations vary.

There is an anti-typical fulfilment of what Paul predicted which applies in the WCG.

Notice Paul's words underlined above.

Lawlessness is at the heart of the deceiver's scheme. Because Satan is behind it, the deception will be very subtle. Most will not perceive it as false teaching. He will fool many.

This applies to the WCG now! A man of sin has appeared on the scene speaking for the devil. He has come, of course, as an angel of light. He claims to bring 'new truth', and to liberate the captives from their former bondage, but he is an angel of death and deception in disguise. He espouses Christ on his lips but that is not what is in his heart.

He has come to test the hearts of those in the WCG. Whom will they follow?

Paul goes on to explain why this man appears:

[The lawless one comes with heresy to deceive the majority] because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God sends them strong delusion that they should believe the lie (2 Thes 2:10,11, NKJV).

God allows all this heresy to engulf the church to test people's loyalties. A true believer loves truth. A false believer does not. They have a lawless, unbelieving heart.

... that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness (2 Thes 2:12, NKJV).

That last part - God's condemnation - is not in current WCG theology it would seem. The WCG heretics are now preaching a wafty, sanctimonious 'gospel' of cheap grace. "God is merciful. God is forgiving. God does not have exacting requirements for salvation. Anything goes, so long as you 'accept Christ'." That is the gist of their lawless teaching.

To accommodate the liberal views of the majority of evangelicals and mainstream churches, the WCG now says that, under the New Covenant, it is not necessary to keep the Sabbath in the way the church formerly taught.

I asked at the outset if you knew what it is that has drastically changed - something beneath the surface, hidden. Paul called it a "mystery". The mystery of iniquity is an unseen lawlessness. It has invaded the Worldwide, but do you recognise it?

It is not just the heretical teaching that you hear from WCG pulpits or read in WCG literature. That is a mixture of truth and error and can be found in almost any church in the land. There is something sinister, very cunning, which lies beneath the changes. It is this:

A SHIFT IN THE BASIS OF YOUR BELIEF!

The Basis of WCG Belief

What is the basis of the current WCG belief? They claim it is Christ, but it is not! It cannot be Christ because many of their current theological heresies fly in the face of what Jesus taught in the New Testament. To take just one example, the matter of whether it is necessary to keep the Sabbath under the New Covenant, here is a brief summary of what Jesus said:

If you want to enter life, obey the commandments (Matt 19:17, NIV).

Not just nine of them. ALL of them.

If you show favouritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as law-breakers. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking it all (Jas 2:9,10, NIV).

For He who said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not murder." If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder [or break the Sabbath], you have become a law-breaker (Jas 2:11, NIV).

The Sabbath was made for man [not just for the Jew, it was instituted at Creation, see Gen 2:3] ...the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath (Mark 2:27,28, NIV).

Jesus is not Lord of Sunday. He is Lord of the Sabbath. That means He is its Master, its Maker, and the only One who has authority to declare how it should be observed. If it were appropriate to change the day - which it is not (Heb 13:8) - He is the only One who has authority to change it.

The Sabbath has not been changed since Creation. Nor will it be. Yet the WCG claims Sabbath keeping has no N. T. basis, that the Church can now keep Sunday in honour of Jesus' resurrection. (They don't consider that Jesus did NOT rise on Sunday! They are willingly ignorant of that fact also.)

What is the basis of this belief? MEN. It was a MAN (guided by Satan, of course) who first came up with the "good idea" that if the Church honoured Jesus' resurrection on Sunday, it would have a convenient excuse to dispense with keeping the Sabbath. Thereby the Church could divorce itself from Jewish association and avoid the brunt of anti-Semitic persecution.

All this occurred over the space of two or three centuries. Many actors were involved under the demonic influences and motivations of the time.

Yet, Jesus said His Church would be faithful to His Word to the end, without altering it in any way. It would still be keeping the commandments and holding to the true testimony of Jesus right up till His coming (Rev 12:17), and would hallow the Sabbath to the point of not wishing to flee with all one's possessions on that day in the time of distress (Matt 24:20).

The crunch test for all believers, since the apostles faced it themselves at the beginning of the Church era, has always been whether we will obey men or God.

What is the basis of your belief? Is it Christ, or is it what men say? Do you follow your church leaders? Or do you search the Word of God for yourself and obey what God tells you there?

You have to work out your own salvation (Phil 2:12), not let men work it out for you. Following them in such a mindless fashion is spiritual suicide!

The Motive of Heretics

Paul declared to the Ephesian elders:

For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God (Acts 20:27, NIV).

False teachers do not proclaim the whole will of God! They preach some truth, mixed with some error. It is a potent concoction. It has always been Satan's most adept ploy, ever since his first lie in the Garden which was a deceptive half-truth. It was designed to deceive. It had the desired effect – to lead people astray.

False ministers don't deliberately lead you astray. They are themselves deceived. They think they are doing the right thing. They think they are preaching truth. But Satan has them in his grasp. They are doing his work.

Paul also warned the Ephesian elders:

Guard yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the Church of God, which He bought with His own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them (Acts 20:28-30, NIV).

Do you see the subtle shift in what occurs? There is a drawing away of your faith from focus on Jesus as the basis of your belief and practice, to a focus on men. Leaders of churches can tend to draw away disciples after them – not in a physical sense, although that occurs in many cases. It is the spiritual transference of loyalty which is the most devastating because it is unseen. It is a "mystery".

WCG leaders have drawn away the loyalty of members from Christ and caused them to follow them! That is the mystery of iniquity at work. It is a satanic ploy to replace the foundation of your belief with a human idol. Do not conform! (1 Jn 5:21).

Malcolm B Heap, February 1998