The Heaps were not the only ones abused in the Dunstable congregation.

Patrick Fortune returned to church attendance after God reawakened him spiritually last year. He attended a few services (as he was quite entitled to do, being a baptised church member) until H. Sullivan illegally put a stop to that!

He also dismissed Bill Brackley from the congregation for the illicit reason of not wearing a suit to church! Others have been threatened with disfellowshipment for a similar 'offence', and one young man was recently thrown out of a service at Dunstable for not wearing his jacket.

Paul Fortune has been prevented from attending services for daring to question the misuse of 'authority' of the ministry in policing the church in this way.

All of these have taken up their cases to both Mr McCullough and Pasadena but no one at any level in the administration has listened to their evidence, rather injustice has prevailed because the minister has been supported in wrongdoing every time.

[NOTE: Sept. 1998: These abuses have never been rectified. Apologies and retractions have not been offered the victims by the WCG junta, nor the abused parties compensated or welcomed back into fellowship. The WCG might like to flatter itself about its 'changes' which they claim are for the better, but what good are words without corresponding actions? The victims of abuse have never received any compensation from their abusers.]

If anyone else dares to cross the paths of such men as Suckling and Sullivan he too will be shunned. Doctrine does not enter into it. Nor righteousness or faith. You can be obedient to God and display the 'fruits' of God's Spirit in your life, but if you don't 'bow down' to the man in office, your days in the church are numbered!

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego (Daniel 3) faced the same trial in their day but in the physical plane. God's people today face it on the spiritual plane.

Whom will you worship? Men or God?

Christ told us to reverence no man (Matt. 23:1-10) But are we today unwittingly reverencing men, worshipping them, just as the vassals and minions of the Babylonian empire were forced to do in their day? Only today it is far more subtle and secret. Even a mystery!

Christ commands us to come out of such an evil Babylonish system (Rev. 18:4). But the same evil Babylonish hierarchical system of government grips the Worldwide Church of God today and enforces a spiritual servitude comparable only with that of ancient Babylon! (See Good News article "Did Christ Reorganise the Church?" Feb. 1939 by H W Armstrong).

You may find that hard to stomach, but don't discount the validity of these words. Corruption was predicted to envelop the Church of God (Acts 20:29, II Tim. 3:7, Titus 1:16, II Thes. 2, Gal. 1:7, I Jn. 2:18, Jude, III Jn. 9-10).

Iniquity was predicted by Christ to abound in the church and as a consequence God's love (agape) would wax cold in many (Matt. 24:12).

The mystery (i.e. hidden) of iniquity and the man of sin are IN THE TEMPLE OF GOD (II Thes. 2:4). If you don't believe that, read the proof in v. 10. Who else should have received the love of the truth? God's people, of course!

The falling away is happening NOW! And it is not a falling away due to people leaving the church. That may also be true to a lesser extent. But primarily it is a falling away from God's truth WITHIN the church! (II Thes. 2:3-4, 10). People are believing fables (II Tim. 4:4) fed them in the corrupted guise of biblical teaching.

Now that corruption and inequity are permitted in the ministry of the church, apostasy can easily set in.

Whom are YOU going to follow? Christ, the Word of God? Or men who claim to be Christ's representatives but who compromise with His teachings for the sake of expediency?

You are being prepared to accept CHANGES from HQ. Change of itself is not wrong, so long as the changes represent GROWING in grace and knowledge. If changes are based on truth from God's word that is fine. But if they constitute a watering down of Christ's teachings, leaning towards human rationalisation and liberalism, however subtle, they represent a DEVIATION from the "simplicity that is in Christ" (I Cor. 11:3), a corruption of the pure Word of God (Pr. 30:5) and an erosion of time- honoured biblical traditions.

Why do you hear sermons or comments frequently reminding or forewarning you of coming changes? Why don't you hear of the changes themselves? Why do you have to be brainwashed and 'prepared' before the actual changes themselves are announced? Because the administration know that a lot of people would not accept the changes without being 'softened up' first!

If the changes can be substantiated biblically, you should be told of the changes and be given the biblical proof to support them. You would have no problem following such truth.

When you first learned that the Sabbath Day was not Sunday, but Saturday, or any other significant truth you were not brainwashed first. The new revelation doubtless came to you suddenly, even though your acceptance of it may have taken time.

Any gradual 'revealing' of new ideas or concepts with prior conditioning of your mind to accept them is part of a clever process false teachers employ to "make merchandise of you" (II Pet. 2:3). The "damnable heresies" that are now being introduced into the WCG are "even denying the Lord that bought them" (II Pet. 2:1). Notice point 1 later in this context.

Tragically the majority of the membership is asleep to what is taking place, just as predicted by Christ (Matt. 25:5). The cry needs to go out that the Bridegroom comes, but you are being lulled into a soporific complacency by your teachers who tell you Christ's coming could now be further away than we thought in the sixties and seventies! The irony of the matter is that it is now MUCH closer than we think! (Rev. 22:20)

The scoffers Peter predicted (II Pet. 3:3-4) who would not see the signs of Christ's return until it is too late (Matt. 25:11-12, 24:40) are even now here. Some in the administration of the WCG have even said that Christ's coming could be as much as 40-50 years away! They certainly don't understand prophecy! But that's not surprising; prophecy is no longer to be preached by the church – so HQ recommends.

"If we had 'taken advantage' of recent events by proclaiming them to be a sure sign of the beginning of the end, which probably would have stirred up excitement and emotion in the Church, income might well have been higher than it is today."

"But God has shown us BY MORE THAN 50 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE, that this is not THE APPROPRIATE APPROACH" (Aug. 19, 1991, WWN, Personal).

That directive conveniently rejects two-thirds of the Bible!

In the Worldwide News of 9th December, 1991, in the Personal from Mr Tkach, he says, "Some tend to see Bible prophecy as a sort of jigsaw puzzle or secret code God left the Church."

"They believe that if Church members study prophecy carefully they will be able to figure out answers to such curiosity-arousing questions as when Jesus will return, the personal identity of the beast of Revelation, or which modern nation will attack another."

"However, to think of Bible prophecy in this way is to think of it from a faulty premise – a faulty premise that it is somehow important for Christians to know the answers to such questions."

Yet Christ said, "Now learn a parable from the fig tree." (Matt. 24:32) "So likewise you, when you shall see these things (prophecies being fulfilled), know that it is very near, even at the doors." (v. 33). But apparently Mr Tkach does not think so.

Mr Tkach continues, (WWN Dec. 9th, 1991), "Let Bible Prophecy always guide us to faithful living, not to empty speculation." (Pg. 6). He then goes on to say that the "how long" before Christ's return is not important.

It is certainly true that it is not AS important as living God's Way, but where does the Bible condemn us wanting to understand "how long"? It doesn't.

If we read Daniel 9 where Daniel described that he came to understand by diligent study how long it would be before God would restore Jerusalem. God gave Daniel that understanding because of his humble, contrite spirit and his deep desire to know! (Dan. 9:4-27). And because of his burning zeal God sent the angel Gabriel to him to reveal these things to Daniel!

We're not supposed to know? That's not what your Bible says. It says "none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand." (Dan. 12:10).