6th December 1992
Enclosed is a copy of a letter written in
1989 by a (then) member of the Worldwide Church of God, Stan Heaton. He was
ejected from the fellowship of the 'church' for exercising
his prerogative to read literature from an outside source [as was Bob
Kilgour, and others]. Hardly a cause for disciplinary action!
The illicit behaviour of some ministers in
the Worldwide has been cause for concern to many in recent months and years.
Stan's case is not an isolated one, not unique by any means.
What may be unusual, however, is his
response to such an evil challenge. He has not responded with recrimination
or resentment. Rather with love and loyalty -- principally for God whom He
wants to serve above all else, and for his brethren who are influenced
against him in favour of organizational norms. Surely his fruits alone
demonstrate that the reasons for his dismissal were unjust and his expulsion
unwarranted?
Few individuals are capable of standing up
to the unchallengeable power of such a dictatorial regime, much less
coherently and cogently presenting the facts and issues which lie at the
heart of their treatment.
This letter was written two years before
my wife and I were equally illicitly disposed of by similar despotic
infidels in the Worldwide masquerading as ministers of Light. One of the
urgent questions that needs to be asked is "how many others are there who
have been wrongly dismissed from the fellowship of the Worldwide Church of
God?" They need to be sought out. Justice needs to be done. Apologies need
to be made. Changes need to be effected.
The illicit autocratic power of the
Worldwide ministry needs to be broken. It is an abuse of the authority which
Jesus has vested in His ministry to serve, to help, to succour, to feed. The
time for radical changes has come.
My question to you is, "What are you going
to do about it?" That is the question Jesus places before you now.
You are to have no fellowship with the
evil workers of darkness. Discipline should be exerted towards those who
submit to the devil's ways, not those who submit to God's ways. There has
been a blurring of black and white.
When Jude wrote his epistle to those "who
are loved by God the Father and kept in the faith by Jesus Christ" (notice
by JESUS CHRIST, not by those who claim to be His ministers), he wished that
they may "ever experience more and more of mercy, peace and love!" (Jude 1-2
Phillips).
It is timely to repeat the message of Jude
here, now that we have come full circle since those times. The crisis which
the Worldwide Church of God now faces is directly attributable to the same
problem of satanic inroads into the Church which Judas addressed back then.
Faith Once Delivered Under Threat
Just as Jude was compelled by the Spirit
to alert the brethren then, so I feel "compelled to make my letter to you
an earnest appeal to put up a real fight for the faith which has
been once for all handed on to those who are committed to God. For there are
certain men who have surreptitiously entered the Church but who have long
ago been marked out for condemnation. They have no reverence for God, and
they abuse His grace as an opportunity for immorality. They will not
recognize the only Master, Jesus Christ our Lord.
"I want to remind you of something that
you really know already: that although the Lord saved all the people from
the land of Egypt, yet afterwards He brought to their downfall those who
would not trust Him. And the very angels who failed in their high duties and
abandoned their proper sphere have been deprived by God of both Light and
Liberty until the judgment of the great day. Sodom and Gomorrah and the
adjacent cities who, in the same way as these men today, gave themselves up
to" [the same basic lusts] (Jude 3-7, Phillips.)
These included, not only sexual depravity,
but included "...pride, fullness of bread, and
abundance of idleness... neither did [they] strengthen the hand of the poor
and needy. And they were haughty, and committed abomination before Me:
therefore I took them away as I saw [fitting]... "(Ez 16:49-50 KJV).
"...These fellows, however, are ready to
mock at anything that is beyond their knowledge, while in the things that
they know by instinct like unreasoning beasts they are utterly depraved. I
say, Woe to them! For they have taken the road of Cain; for what they could
get they have rushed into the same error as Balaam; they have destroyed
themselves by rebelling against God as did Korah long ago.
"These men are blots on the
good-fellowship of your feasts, for they eat in your company without
reverence, looking after no one but themselves. They are like clouds driven
up by the wind, but they bring no rain. They are like trees in the autumn
without a single fruit -- doubly dead for they have been pulled up by the
roots. They are like raging waves of the sea producing only the spume of
their own shameful deeds. They are like stars which follow no orbit, and
their proper place is the everlasting blackness of the regions beyond the
Light. It was of these men that Enoch prophesied when he said:
"'Behold the Lord came with ten thousands
of His holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the
ungodly of all their works of ungodliness which they have ungodly wrought,
and of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.'
"These are the men who complain and curse
their fate while trying all the time to mould life according to their own
desires. They 'talk big' but will pay men great respect if it is to their
own advantage.
"Now do remember, dear friends, the words
that the messengers of Jesus Christ gave us beforehand when they said 'there
will come in the last days mockers who live according to their own godless
desires'. These are the men who split communities, for they are led
by human emotions and never by the Spirit of God.
"But you, dear friends of mine, build
yourselves up on your most holy faith and by praying through the Holy Spirit
keep yourselves within the love of God... There are some whom you must pity
because of their doubts; some you must save by snatching them out of the
fire. But there are others for whom your pity must be mixed with caution,
hating the very clothes which their deeds have soiled.
"Now to Him who is able to keep you
from falling and to present you before His glory without fault and with
unspeakable joy, to the only God, our Saviour, be glory and majesty, power
and authority..." (Jude 10-25, Phillips).
Come out from them, O My people, lest you
become accomplices in their sins and must share in their punishment.
Sincerely, in Jesus' name,
Malcolm B Heap
It’s Now Happened!
Although this letter was written more than
two years before Little Joe’s big heretical onslaught, it predicted of a
coming attack against the faith once delivered to the saints (see underlined
text). It warned of men who would split the church -- "split communities".
It warned of a coming onslaught against
the faith and of the need for vigilance in looking to Christ to "keep you
from falling".
How many have fallen since Tkach’s
insidious introduction of heresies in early 1995? Quite a number!
