Will God Use Hypocrisy to Finish His Work of Warning the Nations?

Will God give hypocrites the power to finish the work of warning the nations? Will He use hypocrisy to finish that work?

The Church of God is the body of Christ (Romans 12:4-5, 1 Corinthians 12:12-13, Ephesians 1:22-23, Ephesians 4:12, Colossians 1:18, Colossians 1:24).  God and Christ work through the Church.  We represent God to the world.  God speaks to the world through the Church.

Is it the role of the Church to represent the hypocrisy of God?  Is that our job, to show the world that God is a hypocrite and He uses hypocrites to do His work?  Is it our job to show that God uses hypocrisy to get His message to the world?

God is not a hypocrite, and it is not our job to show God to the world in that way.

When God finishes the work powerfully, He will do it honestly and sincerely with a Church that practices what it preaches.  He will not use hypocrisy to get the work done.  God never practices hypocrisy, and Christ is not going to lead the Church of God to preach the gospel by hypocrisy.

If we try to preach the gospel through and by hypocrisy, we are not following Christ's lead, and He will not bless us with an open door.

Mr. Armstrong was not a hypocrite.  He practiced what he preached.  And God used him powerfully to get the true gospel and the warning message out to the public.  But the Church of God today does not practice Mr. Armstrong's way of life.

We need God to use us powerfully to get the message out as He did with Mr. Armstrong.  That is the only way we will get the job done.  Will He use us powerfully if we are practicing hypocrisy in the way we try to do the work?  Absolutely not.

We are hypocrites when we tell the public to believe their Bibles more than their churches and traditions and we don't do the same.  We need God to give us the power to finish the work - that power will only come from God, not from ourselves.  And God will only give us that power if we practice what we preach.

We have to practice what we preach if we want God's help to get the Ezekiel warning message out to our nations before the tribulation begins.  And we are not practicing what we preach when we tell the public to believe their Bibles more than their traditions and church leaders while we tell our members to believe the ministry more than their Bibles, or let the ministry interpret the Bible for them (as the Catholics do), or believe Mr. Armstrong more than they believe their Bibles.

No wonder we can't do the work powerfully.  No wonder we can't get the true gospel and warning message out with the power and effectiveness needed to reach everyone before the great tribulation begins.

Are we all hypocrites?  Is there no one who has the guts and the zeal to stand up for the truth?

This is the Laodicean era all right, and no minister or fellowship has the right to claim the title of being Philadelphian.

No minister or speaker in the Church today has the right to tell members, "God tells us to hold fast to what we have", because God only says that to Philadelphia, and no fellowship has an open door for doing the work that identifies them as Philadelphia as Mr. Armstrong had.



Don't Read Your Neighbor's Mail and Think It Is Yours


Ever get a wrong letter in the mail?  Your address is 123 Main Street, and in your mailbox you find a letter addressed to a different person at 125 Main Street.  It is for your neighbor.  So you walk over to his house and give him his mail.

But what if you didn't notice the name and address?  You open it thinking it is for you.  You read the letter and think it applies to you.  But it doesn't.

That is what too many Church of God members do.  They read Christ's letter to Philadelphia, but they are not Philadelphian.  They don't look at the address.  The address points to those who have an open door for doing the work as Mr. Armstrong had.  But they don't notice that.  So they see the part where Christ tells Philadelphians to hold fast to what they have, and they say, that's us (our fellowship), we need to hold fast.  But they are reading the wrong letter.  They should be reading the letter to Laodicea, or Sardis, or whatever group they are part of.  Christ tells Laodiceans to repent, to change.  That is the exact opposite of hold fast!

Why do they not recognize that they are not Philadelphian?  Spiritual blindness, probably from pride and vanity (Revelation 3:17).  Their pride and vanity and conceit stop them from seeing their faults.   Many of them will wake up and have a chance to repent in the tribulation, if they live that long, when they will be greatly humbled the hard way.

So they read the wrong letter and think it is for them.  It is not.  They should not hold fast to their wrong ways.  They cannot hold fast to their right ways because they cannot hold fast to what they do not have in the first place.  They have Mr. Armstrong's doctrines, but they do not have his way of life that produced those doctrines, the way of believing the Bible above all else.  They cannot hold fast to that way of life because they do not have it.  They believe the Church more than the Bible.



The Sin of Hypocrisy


When Christ walked this earth as a human being, what made Him the most angry?  What do you think?  Might it have been the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees?  Is that what He reserved His harshest words for?  Consider these passages, and you be the judge.

"Then the scribes and Pharisees who were from Jerusalem came to Jesus, saying, 'Why do Your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.'  He answered and said to them, 'Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition? For God commanded, saying, "Honor your father and your mother"; and, "He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death."  But you say, "Whoever says to his father or mother, 'Whatever profit you might have received from me is a gift to God' " - then he need not honor his father or mother.  Thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition. Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: "These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men." ' " (Matthew 15:1-9).

"Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples, saying: 'The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do.  For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments. They love the best places at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues, greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men, "Rabbi, Rabbi."  But you, do not be called "Rabbi"; for One is your Teacher, the Christ, and you are all brethren. Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. And do not be called teachers; for One is your Teacher, the Christ.  But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.
   'But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.
   'Woe to you, blind guides, who say, "Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it." Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold? And, "Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obliged to perform it." Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift?  Therefore he who swears by the altar, swears by it and by all things on it. He who swears by the temple, swears by it and by Him who dwells in it. And he who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by Him who sits on it.
   'Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.  Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!
   'Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.
   'Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
   'Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, "If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets."  Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers' guilt.
   'Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.  Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.
   'Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!" ' " (Matthew 23:1-39).

See also Mark 7:5-13, Luke 11:37-54, Luke 12:54-56, and Luke 13:13-17.

As a side note, Jesus attended the synagogues all His life, "as His custom was" (Luke 4:16).  He must not have said these things with such force to the Pharisees before His ministry or He would have been kicked out.  He showed respect to their office and attended Sabbath services with them even though they must have taught much error.  That is an example for us, of respect and Sabbath attendance.  But imagine His frustration and anger that may have built up over the years, which now, during His ministry, He spoke up about.

Paul said, of Old Testament scriptures, that they were written to give examples for our learning.  "For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope" (Romans 15:4).  "Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come" (1 Corinthians 10:11)

Is it possible that, just as the bad example of ancient Israel coming out of Egypt and the lessons we can learn from them can apply today, so the lessons of the bad examples of the scribes and Pharisees with their hypocrisy can apply to us in the Church of God today?

As the scribes and Pharisees were the religious leaders in Christ's day, so the Church of God evangelists, pastors, and elders are the religious leaders for us in our day.

If we tell the public to believe the Bible more than their churches and traditions, which we must say if we are to be effective with our message, and then tell our own members to believe the leadership and ministry about what the Bible means, letting the Church interpret the Bible for us (like Catholics), we are hypocrites.  We practice and teach our members to practice a different way of life than we tell the public in a most critical area: understanding the word of God and knowing His will in our lives.

Not only are we hypocrites for practicing a different way of life than we tell the public, but the leadership and ministers are being hypocrites for teaching a way of life to the members they do not practice among themselves.  For among themselves they hold doctrinal meetings in which everyone is encouraged to give their opinions about a proposed doctrinal change or understanding of a passage of the Bible, and the leader goes around the table and gets everyone's opinion.  But to the membership, he says, I don't want your opinions.  Get rid of your doctrinal idea-babies, don't send in study papers measured by the pound - WE, the leadership and ministry, will tell you what to believe.  We will tell you what the Bible means.  Don't have your own ideas.  Don't be creative.  Don't use your mind and the Holy Spirit to understand the Bible.  Be teachable when the ministry tells you what the Bible means.  Have faith that Christ is the head of the Church.  Believe the ministry and the Church.

Of course, they don't mention that Christ being the head of the Church does not mean everything the Church teaches and does is right.  Christ does not take away free moral agency, nor does He protect us from every mistake.  He leads through the Bible, but every COG leader, minister, and member has to make his own decision about whether or not he will follow where Christ leads on any particular doctrine, question, or policy.

What hypocrisy exists in the whole Church of God!

And of course, they don't mention that Mr. Armstrong, from whom they get most of their doctrines, while he was only a lay-member and not a minister or apostle, practiced the way of life they now mock, the way of life that produced the doctrines they mostly follow.  While a lay member he also had idea-babies and sent in suggestions by the pound, including the identity of the lost tribes of Israel and probably the "idea-baby" that we need to keep the holy days.  



The Lesson of Unequal Weights and Measures


It is important to God that we be honest and fair in our dealings with each other.  God loves honest weights and measures and hates unequal weights and measures, where a merchant will use a light weight or small measure for selling a quantity of something and a larger weight or measure when buying.  The dishonest merchant does this to take unfair advantage of his customers, to cheat them and steal from them.  Notice these scriptures.

"You shall not have in your bag differing weights, a heavy and a light. You shall not have in your house differing measures, a large and a small. You shall have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure, that your days may be lengthened in the land which the LORD your God is giving you. For all who do such things, all who behave unrighteously, are an abomination to the LORD your God" (Deuteronomy 25:13-16).

"You shall do no injustice in judgment, in measurement of length, weight, or volume.  You shall have honest scales, honest weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin: I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt" (Leviticus 19:35-36).

"Dishonest  scales are an abomination to the LORD, But a just weight is His delight" (Proverbs 11:1).

God also wants one law for the native Israelite and the stranger.

"One law shall be for the native-born and for the stranger who dwells among you" (Exodus 12:49).

"One ordinance shall be for you of the assembly and for the stranger who dwells with you, an ordinance forever throughout your generations; as you are, so shall the stranger be before the LORD.  One law and one custom shall be for you and for the stranger who dwells with you" (Numbers 15:15-16).

"You shall have one law for him who sins unintentionally, for him who is native-born among the children of Israel and for the stranger who dwells among them" (Numbers 15:29).

I repeat what I said before.  God inspired these words for our learning today.  This is not just for ancient Israel.  It is for us today, the Church of God, too (Romans 15:4, 1 Corinthians 10:11).

The application today is that we must have one standard for everyone.  We should not teach one way of life for the general public, then teach a different way of life for our members, and then the leadership and ministry practice a third way of life for themselves.  Nor should the leadership and ministry exalt themselves above the members, thinking they have the right to believe the Bible directly, even advising the leadership on doctrine, but telling the members that they do not have that right.

"And He said to them, 'The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called "benefactors."  But not so among you; on the contrary, he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves' " (Luke 22:25-26).

The way of life that Mr. Armstrong practiced was to believe the Bible - believe God's word - more than any man, leader, church, or tradition.  He practiced that way of life as a prospective member before he was baptized and as a lay member before he was ordained to the ministry, years before he was an apostle, and he stayed with that way all his life.  Everything else - every doctrine, every policy, every decision, every work - came from the practice of that way of life.  That was the foundation for everything he did.  And it was also the way of life that Loma Armstrong practiced, and she was instrumental in bringing Mr. Armstrong to repentance and conversion.  It was her way of life, of believing the Bible more than the churches and tradition, that brought her husband to conversion.  The fruits of that way of live were obviously good (Matthew 7:15-20).

Mr. Armstrong taught that way of life to the public - exactly that way.  He told them to believe God, believe the Bible, not any man, church, or tradition, not even himself.  He said, don't believe me, don't believe any man - believe God, believe your Bible.

But in many Church of God fellowships, the leadership and ministry teach the members a different way of life, like having a different law for the native and the stranger, which God forbids, or having unequal weights and measures, which He hates.  They teach the members to believe the ministry even more than the Bible.

They want the members to let the ministry interpret the Bible for them.  They have abandoned Mr. Armstrong's teaching that the Bible interprets the Bible.  They have replaced that with the Catholic doctrine of letting the Church and leadership and ministry interpret the Bible for members.

They don't put it into those terms.  They like to use code language.  They say the members should be "teachable".  But they do not mean the members should be teachable with the Bible.  They mean members should be teachable with the ministry.  They mean the members should let the ministry teach the members what that Bible means, and they should believe the ministry more than what they see in their own Bibles with their own eyes.  That is not what Mr. Armstrong taught the public in his radio broadcasts.

They also will say that members should have faith that Christ is head of the Church.  That also is code language.  Of course we know that Christ is the head of the Church because the Bible plainly says that.  "For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything" (Ephesians 5:23-24).  "And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence" (Colossians 1:18).  That is not the issue.

The issue is that not every decision, policy, and teaching from the ministry is from Christ.  Christ will do His part to lead the ministry and the Church.  He does this through the Bible and the Holy Spirit to help us understand the Bible.  But ministers, being human, can still make mistakes and can still sin.  They are not perfect and never were.  Even Mr. Armstrong made mistakes, and he corrected many of them when he found them.

Christ does not take away or override the free moral agency of the ministry.

And that means that the ministry does not always follow Christ's lead.

The husband is the head of the wife, but does that mean every wife perfectly obeys and submits to her husband?

To say that Christ is the head of the Church in the context of believing the ministry is intended to say that the decisions, policies, and teachings of the ministry are correct because Christ leads them, and that those decisions always come from Christ - to disagree with the ministry is to disagree with Christ.  But that is not true.  No matter how much Christ leads through the Bible and God's Holy Spirit, ministers can and sometimes do disobey Christ's directions.  So no, Christ being the head of the Church does not mean that the ministry is always right.  We have Church of God history to prove this.  Why else is the Church scattered into competing fellowships?  Is Christ divided (1 Corinthians 1:13)?

And what will a new prospective member think when he visits or comes into our congregations and hears the ministry teach a different standard to the members than he heard or read in our literature and broadcasts?

He hears us say to the public, don't believe us, believe your Bible.  He says to himself, great, this is the kind of church I have been looking for.  They are different.

Then he visits and hears the ministry say, trust us that Christ leads us and believe what we say about Bible doctrine.  And he says, this group is no different than all the other groups that teach their own thing.  Will he not walk right out again?



Are We Laodiceans or Philadelphians?


We are in the Laodicean era.  I won't try to convince you of this - you probably already know it.  Not that you necessarily know if you are Laodicean.  If you are, you might be the last to know and admit it.  Laodiceans are blind to their spiritual condition and do not want to admit, even to themselves, that they are Laodicean.  "Because you say, 'I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing' - and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked" (Revelation 3:17).  Also see Jeremiah 17:9.

So how do Laodiceans admit that this is the Laodicean era without admitting they are Laodicean?   Easy.  The Church of God is scattered.  So it is everyone else who is Laodicean, but each Laodicean says, "I am Philadelphian".  This happens at the level of a fellowship as well as an individual.  Many fellowships may say, "Our Church of God fellowship is Philadelphian, but the others are Laodicean".  But individual members may say the same of themselves and other members.  

So you have the irony of a Laodicean saying, "God tells me to hold fast to what I have", quoting part of the message to Philadelphia (Revelation 3:11), when Christ does not tell Laodiceans to hold fast to anything, probably because they have little or nothing worth holding fast to.  Rather, Christ tells them to repent, to change, NOT to hold fast to their wrong ways (Revelation 3:19).  But Laodiceans don't see that because they are blind.  So they think "hold fast" applies to them, when Christ is telling them just the opposite: don't hold fast to your wrong way of thinking but repent, change.

We are to hold fast to Mr. Armstrong's way of life, not to a list of doctrines he taught that was changing throughout his life as God revealed more to him and as he corrected his errors.  Philadelphians have and practice that way of life.  Laodiceans do not.  So what are Laodiceans to hold fast to?

Actually, what some Loadiceans have and try to hold fast to is the Catholic way of life - the way of life of believing church tradition more than the Bible - the way of life of thinking the pope is infallible and his teachings should not be changed or corrected from the Bible.  Some Laodiceans make a pope, and an idol, out of Mr. Armstrong that way.

Many others make idols out of the leadership and ministry of their fellowship.  They may be willing to correct Mr. Armstrong's errors or add to his doctrines, but they let their own leadership and ministry interpret the Bible for them.  They do not teach the members to let the Bible, not the ministry, interpret the Bible.  Maybe they do not even know what it means to let the Bible interpret the Bible - maybe they forgot it if they ever knew it in the first place.



Don't Try This
 

Here is a suggestion (not really, but think about it) for how to structure our message to the public.  Don't say, "Believe God, believe your Bible".  Instead say, "Believe us, believe the Church of God, believe our ministers, teachers, and speakers.  We have the truth.  Don't believe your own traditions.  Don't believe your own ministers and churches.  Don't believe God either.  Don't believe what you think you see in your Bible.  Only we Church of God ministers have the truth.  We will interpret the Bible for you.  Believe our interpretation of the Bible.  You need us to interpret it for you.  Don't interpret it yourself, and don't think you can let the Bible interpret the Bible.  Believe what we say, believe what we teach you.  We will tell you what the Bible says."

How would that fly?  Would it be effective?  Not a chance.

It might at least have the advantage that we would not be hypocrites as much as we are now.  Because we would be practicing what we preach.  This is how we teach our members.  We say, "Believe Mr. Armstrong", or, "Believe us ministers.  Let us interpret the Bible for you" (code words, "be teachable" and "have faith that Christ is the head of the Church").

Of course, that message would not be very effective.  Why would it?  Why should the people believe us more than their own ministers?  Why our traditions?  They already have their own traditions.  They can only believe our message by putting the Bible first.  They have to believe God to escape Satan's lies.  And they know that we are not God.

The commands in the Bible to preach the gospel and warn the wicked in Proverbs 24:11, Isaiah 58:1, Ezekiel 3:16-21, Ezekiel 33:1-9, Matthew 28:19-20, and many other places are, in effect, commands for the leaders and ministers to practice and teach the members the way of life that Mr. Armstrong practiced, the way of believing and obeying the Bible more than any man, any church (including the true Church of God), and any tradition, because that is the only way we can effectively preach the true gospel and the Ezekiel warning.



We Need God to Give Us Success


Why won't our current way of doing things work?

Very simply, we need God's help.  We can't do it by our own human power alone.  Our preaching of the gospel and the Ezekiel warning, no matter how zealous we are, will not work without God's blessing and help.  He has to empower us and empower the message to be effective.  He needs to do for us what He did for Mr. Armstrong.

You could be very zealous for the work of God, totally passionate for preaching the gospel and the Ezekiel warning to our nations.  You might be a long-time evangelist with years of experience working in the Church of God.  Maybe you knew Mr. Armstrong well.  You might be red-hot on fire for the gospel, overflowing with zeal.  You may have talent, good looks, a great speaking voice, a knack for teaching, the wisdom of Solomon and Daniel combined, great charisma, the wealth of Elon Musk, perfect health and vitality, and an abundance of personal energy.  You can have all human power and ability for accomplishing great things.  And you may focus all that on getting the gospel and Ezekiel warning message out to the nations.

And all that power would help enormously.  But if it is human power alone, it won't work.  It won't be enough to get results.  You could make a big noise to some degree, but it won't get results and it won't last.  No one will pay any attention.  Your work will fade away.

To be successful, human power is not enough no matter how great that human power.  You need God's help.  God's miraculous help, added to your human power whether your human power be large or small, will do the job.

Why?  Because this is Satan's world (Luke 4:5-8, John 14:30, Revelation 12:9).

Satan is the deceiver of this world (Revelation 12:9).  And no matter how powerful you are compared to other human beings, Satan is more powerful than you with your human power.  And Satan has tens of millions of demons to help him.

But Christ has already conquered Satan.  "Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, 'All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.'  Then Jesus said to him, 'Away with you, Satan! For it is written, "You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve." ' Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him" (Matthew 4:8-11).  "These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world" (John 16:33).  Also see Matthew 4:1-11, Luke 4:1-13, and Matthew 12:28-30.

Christ, having already conquered Satan, has the power and authority to give us an open door and make our efforts successful (Matthew 28:18-20, Revelation 3:7-8).  He can give us miraculous help to overcome Satan's opposition to our message.

Suppose you do a TV or radio or Internet broadcast preaching the gospel.  You advertise it so the advertisement, and maybe the message itself, reaches millions.  No matter how persuasive you are, without God's help, Satan will simply block people from understanding and believing the message.  Someone will watch it, or part of it, and it just won't register.  They won't get it no matter how logical and clear you are.  They will watch only the beginning and lose interest, or they may watch the whole thing and not remember it five minutes later.  Also, Satan can influence stations and media platforms to block and reject your message no matter how much money you have.

Satan deceives them.  He has that power.  Your message won't go anywhere.

What you need is the open door from Christ promised only to Philadelphia (Revelation 3:7-8).

If Christ sets before you that open door, He will help you and help get the message across with power through the Holy Spirit.  He will overcome Satan's influence as much as needed to get the message out with power.  I don't say He will grant repentance to everyone or even cause everyone to completely understand and believe everything you teach.  But He will supernaturally help the message enough for it to be effective in warning the people and enabling them to hear and remember the message.  And He will give more complete understanding to the few God calls.

He will also help get approval for our message with the various media outlets.

Mr. Armstrong gives an example in his autobiography.  One day he was scheduled to meet with some radio station people to try to schedule a broadcast.  But unlike other times, he neglected to pray about the meeting before he went to it.  So he went to the meeting and it went nowhere.  He was rejected.  Then he realized he neglected to pray about it, so he prayed that God would bless the meeting and give him success.  Then he tried again.  This time he was successful.

"So he answered and said to me: 'This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: "Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit," Says the LORD of hosts' " (Zechariah 4:6).

We need that power from Christ and God.

And that is my whole point of this section.  We need God's supernatural help to effectively obey His commands to preach the gospel and the Ezekiel warning as a witness before the tribulation begins so the people know that God was fair to warn them and to help their repentance during the tribulation.  Without God's help, Satan will block us no matter how hard we try.

We need the open door Christ promises to Philadelphia, and He won't give us an open door to preach the gospel and Ezekiel warning BY HYPOCRISY!

Without that miraculous open door, we won't be able to do it, as the whole Church of God is learning by experience.

And so far, since the death of Herbert W. Armstrong almost forty years ago, Christ has not given that open door to any fellowship.  We have to face that.

"Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear" (Isaiah 59:1-2).

We must not sin the sin of idolatry, breaking the second commandment by making idols of our ministry, leadership, and Church of God traditions, believing those things more than we believe God's word the Bible, believing the Church more than what we see with our own eyes in the Bible, refusing to learn new knowledge God has in the Bible to teach us.  We must also not try to do God's work by the methods of hypocrisy and think He will give us the help we need if we try to do God's work that way.

We must get rid of our hypocrisy.  We must teach our own members to believe the Bible more than the Church of God.  Then we can tell the public, with sincerity and integrity, don't believe us, believe your Bible, which is a necessary part of the message.

Then Christ can give us the open door.



Our Sin Is Worse than Just Hypocrisy


If we believe the Church more than the Bible, we are not just committing the sin of hypocrisy when we tell the public to believe their Bibles.  We are committing the sin of idolatry.  Even if we have no work of proclaiming the gospel to the public, even if no hypocrisy is involved because we have no message for the public, we are still sinning if we believe the Church and ministry more than the Bible.  We are committing idolatry.

Why?

Believing God and His word is called faith.  And faith is towards God and not man.  To have greater faith and trust in the Church, its leadership, and its ministry than we have in God and His word the Bible is idolatry.  We are giving men the trust and faith that rightfully belongs only to God.

Having a lesser faith in God and His word is a violation of the law.  That is because faith is a weightier matter of the law (Matthew 23:23).  And since faith is a matter of the law, the transgression of that law is sin (1 John 3:4).  The Bible is obvious that faith is towards God, not man.

Our faith and trust in God must be absolute, never second to our faith and trust in anyone or anything else.  This is what the first great commandment requires.  " 'Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?' Jesus said to him, ' "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." This is the first and great commandment' " (Matthew 22:36-38).

The whole emphasis and teaching of the Bible is to trust God more than man.  We violate that principle when we let the ministry interpret the Bible for us and we believe the ministry more than what we see for ourselves in the Bible.

The office of minister is a God-ordained office, and we are commanded to show due respect.  We should listen with an open mind to the ministry and be respectful.  We should not undermine the authority of the ministry in conversation with other members by contradicting them.  And if we see something different in the Bible than what the ministry teaches, we can discuss it with them, and maybe they will show us, from the Bible, where we are wrong.  Then we can agree with them when they prove their case from the Bible.

But if they cannot prove their case, we must believe the Bible more than the ministry.

When ministers tell the members to believe their interpretation of the Bible and not to have their own ideas, they are in effect teaching the members to believe them more than God.  And in doing this, they are teaching the members to sin.  "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world because of offenses! For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes!" (Matthew 18:6-7).

I wrote earlier about a new person visiting the Church and then walking out again when he sees the hypocrisy.  But I should also mention that Christ Himself may keep new members out of the Church right now because the Church of God has become a toxic environment that leads some members to sin, and many new prospective members cannot handle being called into that environment right now.  So for their own spiritual protection, God delays their calling until a faithful Church of God fellowship appears.  That is possible, and may be one of the reasons the Church is growing so slowly, if at all.



Multiple Witnesses to State of the Church


God says that in trying someone accused of a crime which brings the death penalty, he should not be put to death on the testimony of only one witness, but two or three witnesses are needed (Numbers 35:30, Deuteronomy 17:6, Deuteronomy 19:15).

This illustrates a larger principle, that, when possible, we should verify what we are checking up on with more than one piece of evidence.

God can speak to us in more than one way.  He speaks to us most directly through His word, the Bible.  God inspired the Bible (2 Peter 1:21), and He cannot lie (Titus 1:1-2, Hebrews 6:17-18) and therefore scripture cannot be broken (John 10:35-36).

God also speaks to us through creation, that is, the natural world of the earth and skies and plant and animal life.  These things help to show us God's wisdom and creative power (Psalm 19:1-6, Psalm 97:6, Romans 1:18-20).

God can also teach us lessons through history and through the circumstances of our lives.

In the matter of multiple witnesses, we do not need multiple places in the Bible for God to tell us something before we believe it.  One clear scripture is sufficient to establish truth.  Nevertheless, God often provides multiple passages to teach the same point, for emphasis and reminders.  Repetition helps us understand and remember.

I have said some tough things in this post and recent posts.  Some may think I am crazy, completely wrong and off the track.

And I admit that I can be wrong.  I try not to be but I can be.

The Bible certainly interprets itself.  But sometimes we must put multiples scriptures together in a logical way to understand a particular teaching or doctrine.  And sometimes we have to exercise a certain judgment in how we do this using the minds God has given us.  And we can make mistakes in how we do this.  So any of us, no matter how much we sincerely try to let the Bible interpret itself, can make a mistake in judgment in how we put the scriptures together.  We are not trying to put our meaning into it.  We are trying to let the Bible speak to us and believe what it says.  But we can still make mistakes.  That is why I say, I could be wrong.  I don't know how I could be wrong and I don't think I am, but knowing that I am human I know I could be wrong in ways I just can't see.  That is true for all of us.

So here I am, anonymous, alone, a lay member, having no ordination or special authority, telling the Church of God what to do and where it is wrong, based only on the Bible and what I know about the Church of God and its history.

I am saying to the Church of God that we must deliver God's warning message and true gospel to all Israel before the tribulation begins, and I am saying that to do this we need to teach the members to believe what they see in the Bible more than they believe the Church and its ministry.

Do you think I am crazy?  Do you say, right, Author, you say you could be wrong and you are wrong?

But I have one or two additional witnesses, besides the Bible, to back me up and confirm that, at least something is wrong in the Church of God, and this may be it.  No one has shown me anything else or any other cause of our problems.  And we do have problems.

What are those problems?  What are those witnesses that seem to verify that I am right and on track besides the Bible passages I quote?

One, we are not getting the true gospel and the Ezekiel warning message to all Israel at a pace that will be complete before the great tribulation begins.  Mr. Armstrong built a vast work growing, at one point, at 30% a year, I have heard.

Since then we have never come close to that.

That is a problem, and that problem is a witness that I am not wrong.

The Church is not getting the message out with power.  I say, based on the Bible, that it is because of our hypocrisy in telling our members to believe the ministry first while we tell the public to believe the Bible first.  You might think I am wrong about the Bible.  But if I am wrong, why are we so powerless to get the message out with the massive scale that is needed to get the job done?  Why are we not growing at 30% a year?  

No one has refuted the scriptures I have quoted, and no one has suggested any other reason why we are not getting the job done.

The fact that the work has stagnated seems to confirm what I am saying.  In that sense, it is like a witness that what I am saying is right.

And if that is not enough, consider something that is so obvious no one can deny it.  The Church of God is divided, scattered, into competing groups, and sometimes these groups are hostile to each other.  This is another powerful witness that there is a deep problem in the Church of God.  Why?  Is there a connection between the problem I identify, the hypocrisy of the ministry, and the divided state of the Church today?

The same ministers who tell you to believe their interpretation of the Bible, who mock the faith of members who they say have "idea-babies" and send in suggestions "by the pound", are also severely divided amongst themselves, which is not God's way.  Where is their credibility?

The Church needs to turn the members back to total faith in the Bible and not faith in the ministers as official interpreters of the Bible.  Then see if God blesses the work.