Dr. Meredith has been a major figure in doing the end-time work of God of preaching the gospel to the world, of delivering God's Ezekiel warning message to Israel about the great tribulation to come, of making disciples of all nations, and of feeding the flock.
He has stood for several basic principles that are important for God's work. One, he has had zeal for the gospel. After leaving Worldwide, he was zealous to renew the preaching of the true gospel to the world and to start a broadcast. I am typing some of this from memory, and I don't recall the details perfectly (I will let others fill those in), but he started a work around December 1992. He started Sabbath services with only about 20 or fewer people on the first Sabbath. That was the beginning of Global Church of God. Within about 6-8 weeks he was broadcasting a program to preach the gospel to the world, I think on radio.
He remained firm on the importance of preaching the gospel to the world, and as he continued to do so, it became clear that he was not just trying to orient his program towards those in the Church, but towards those outside the Church of God, the people of the world, as Mr. Armstrong did.
Later, he resisted pressure to cut back on the gospel. In 1998, Larry Salyer and Raymond McNair led a movement to gain control of Global Church of God corporation, a corporation set up by Dr. Meredith to handle the business aspects of the Church. They fired Dr. Meredith over various differences, and one of those differences seemed to be the preaching of the gospel to the world. Dr. Meredith wanted to continue to spend money on the gospel at about the current rate, those against him seemed to want to cut back.
Mr. Salyer and Mr. McNair may have thought that most of the Church would back them. But most of the Church stayed with Dr. Meredith, and Dr. Meredith reorganized and formed a corporation with the name "Living Church of God". I think he preferred the name "Church of the Living God", but that name was not available.
About 75-80% of the ministry and members stayed with Dr. Meredith. They lost the assets held by Global, including, not only office supplies and equipment, but bank accounts, contracts, and copyrights. Living Church of God had to rebuild from scratch, rewriting all the literature, but with most of the ministry and tithe-paying members supporting Dr. Meredith, progress was swift.
Another important principle Dr. Meredith stood for was government from the top down in the Church, not government by the voting of men. He remained faithful to this principle to the very end of his life. This is an important principle taught very clearly in the Bible, as I have shown in chapter 8 of my book, Preaching the Gospel.
He also had a balanced approach to the memory and legacy of Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong. He remained faithful to the major doctrines Mr. Armstrong taught, and he showed respect for Mr. Armstrong. He knew Mr. Armstrong well and worked closely with him, more closely than most evangelists. In a sense, he was one of four young men who worked closely with Mr. Armstrong in the early days of Ambassador College, the others being Dick Armstrong, Garner Ted Armstrong, and Herman Hoeh. He outlived all of them and became an important leader to continue God's work after the breakup of Worldwide Church of God after Mr. Armstrong died and Mr. Joseph Tkach changed many of the important doctrines of Mr. Armstrong.
But as much as Dr. Meredith respected and loved Mr. Armstrong, he never made an idol out of him.
This is a ditch some have fallen into - they regard Mr. Armstrong's teachings as sacred, and for them his word and his teachings in Mystery of the Ages are almost on par, or actually equal in authority in their minds, to the Bible itself. Thus they refused to change any doctrines, even small ones, that Mr. Armstrong taught. They refused to believe the Bible first. They refused to be corrected by God in the Bible. They refused to grow in grace and knowledge as the Bible commands. In this, they have actually gone against one of the most important doctrines Mr. Armstrong taught by word and especially by his example: Don't believe me, believe your Bible, believe God. Mr. Armstrong knew he could make mistakes and that his teaching was not infallible. He corrected his own mistakes, changing his own doctrines as needed. And the proof that he was human and could make mistakes in his teaching was when he taught the brethren, in one of his last sermons before he died, that we should follow the next pastor general (Mr. Joseph Tkach) if we want to make it into God's kingdom. But those who make an idol out of Mr. Armstrong and his teachings do not care about the evidence in the history of the Church or in the Bible that show that we should not idolize the teaching of any man, even an important leader in the Church.
Dr. Meredith never fell into that trap. He loved and respected and honored Mr. Armstrong, and he maintained his major doctrines, but he never made an idol out of him, and he was willing to re-examine some of Mr. Armstrong's judgments and details of doctrines when he felt he had Bible evidence that he should do so.
Because of Dr. Meredith's faithfulness in preaching the gospel to the world with zeal, practicing top down governance in the Church, and putting the Bible first over the traditions of Mr. Armstrong, the Churches he raised up, first Global, then Living, because a home and safe haven for many Philadelphian Christians.
I have said before, Living Church of God does a better job of preaching the gospel and feeding the flock in a balanced way than any other fellowship. God has given LCG an open door for preaching the gospel, and I believe it is for the sake of the Philadelphians that are in LCG that God has provided that open door.
I believe that the majority of Philadelphian members of the whole Church of God have gathered, over the years, into Living Church of God.
There is a great work ahead, and I am hopeful that before the great tribulation begins and the two witness begin their special work, God will use those members of the Church who are Philadelphian in spirit and character as described in the messages to the seven churches in Revelation chapters 2 and 3 to really finish the work and get a powerful warning message out to about 500 million people in the nations that are descended from all the tribes of Israel.
Here are links to related posts in this blog:
"Dr. Roderick Meredith Illness", dated February 19, 2017, link:
http://ptgbook.blogspot.com/2017/02/dr-roderick-meredith-illness.html
"Dr. Roderick C. Meredith Has Died", dated May 19, 2017, link:
http://ptgbook.blogspot.com/2017/05/dr-roderick-c-meredith-has-died.html
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