The Test of Our Faith

God tests us.  He tests His servants.

He tested Abraham before He made His promises to him confirmed and unconditional (Genesis 22:1-18).  He even tested Jesus Christ by having Him face Satan in the temptation in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-17, Luke 4:1-15, Mark 1:12-15).  Christ had to conquer Satan before He started His ministry of preaching the gospel.  Consider Christ's parable about binding the strong man before plundering his goods.  This can refer to Christ and Satan, with Satan the strong man.  When Christ defeated Satan and his temptations in the wilderness, He in effect conquered Satan.  Christ defeated Satan in what Mr. Armstrong called the greatest contest of all time.  When He did that, He in effect bound the strong man.  Christ was now free to plunder Satan's goods, that is this world, and that is when Christ began His ministry, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God to the world (Matthew 12:29, Mark 3:27, Luke 11:21-22, Mark 1:12-15).

Christ had to be tested and had to pass the test before He could begin His ministry.

God tested Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong before using them to do His work.  And that test was a test of faith in God's word, the Bible.  They had to pass that test for God to use them in a powerful way.

God tested Loma Armstrong first.  He used a neighbor lady to point out to Mrs. Armstrong where the seventh day Sabbath is commanded in the Bible.  The test for Loma Armstrong was, would she believe God and the Bible more than the religious traditions and the churches of traditional Christianity that kept Sunday.  Would she give up the things she had always believed in order to believe and obey what God said in the Bible?

She believed God.  She passed the test.

Then, God used her to bring the truth to her husband, Herbert W. Armstrong.

At first, he resisted.  But after extensive Bible research, he also passed the test.  He believed what God said in the Bible more than the religious beliefs he grew up with and assumed were true.

We all face that same test today.  Will we believe the Bible more than our traditions and our Churches of God and their ministers?

God now had two people who passed the test of faith, two people He could use to do His work.  He had Mr. Armstrong and his wife Loma.

Now Mr. Armstrong had contact with the Church of God Seventh Day, which was the true Church of God.  Just as Loma Armstrong passed the test and God used her to bring the truth to Mr. Armstrong, so now that Mr. Armstrong passed the test God used him to bring the truth, new knowledge, to the Church of God Seventh Day.  Would they pass the test of faith?  Would they be willing to believe the Bible more than their traditions and leaders and ministers?

They were not.  While Mr. Armstrong was still a lay member, he sent in two study papers for their review.  One was the truth about the identity of the lost ten tribes of Israel.  Mr. Armstrong said it was about 300 pages (would that be measured "by the pound"?).  The other was on a subject Mr. Armstrong did not identify in his autobiography, but it was probably about the need to keep the holy days.

Church of God Seventh Day rejected both truths.  They failed the test of faith.  They believed their traditions and their Church of God leaders more than the Bible.  They believed man more than God.

So God could not use them.  After about seven years of training in the Church of God Seventh day, Mr. Armstrong raised up a new group called, at first, the Radio Church of God, and later the Worldwide Church of God.  We know the truth today because of that work.

A few from Church of God Seventh Day followed Mr. Armstrong and believed the truths he had discovered in God's word, but most did not.  The new members of the growing Church came from radio and later television and the magazine.

On the subject of tests, there is another incident in Mr. Armstrong's autobiography that demonstrates the lesson that only those who believe God more than the Church can be used by God to do His work.

There was a Protestant minister who had the gift of healing and helped Mr. Armstrong learn about healing.  He was a Sunday keeper.

Mr. Armstrong showed him the truth from the Bible that the seventh day is the Christian Sabbath - Saturday, not Sunday.

The man rejected that truth.  He chose to believe his traditions and the churches more than God and the Bible.

From that point on, the gift of healing left him.  God could no longer use him to do God's work, not even healing.

We are being tested today. You and me and all of us. If we pass the test, I believe God will empower us and bless us to get the warning message and the true gospel out to all the nations of Israel before the great tribulation begins so they will know they had time to repent and escape. But if we fail to pass the test, if we choose to believe our Church of God leaders and traditions more than what we see in God's word, the Bible, how can He use us? How can He use us to tell the nations to believe God more than their traditions when we won't do that ourselves?

And if we fail to warn the wicked because our disbelief disqualifies us, the fault is ours for not getting the warning message out, and God will require of us the blood of those who die (Ezekiel 3:16-21, Ezekiel 33:1-9).  Blood guilt may be upon us, and God may count us as murderers because of our unbelief.

When you or I study the Bible, there may come times when we read something that seems different or contrary to what the Church of God teaches, whatever fellowship we attend.  It may seem to indicate that Church of God teaching is in error on some point, or it may seem to show new knowledge on some point that the Church does not have.

When this happens to us, it is a test of faith from God.  It can be a test of other Christian character traits, but it will also be a test of faith, no different than the test that Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong had to pass before God could use them in His work.

When this happens, we need to make a choice of whether to believe God or the Church.  That is the test.

Now, we should be humble and have an open mind and be willing, especially if it is an important matter, to do research, and that can include talking to the ministry.  When we talk with the ministry, we should have an open mind and listen and speak respectfully.  And about ninety-nine percent of the time, the ministry can show us our error.  When that happens, we will be able to see that what the Church teaches and what the Bible teaches are the same - the Church is not wrong in that case.

But until that research is done, we may have to tentatively make a choice to believe God or man, until someone shows us from the Bible that we are wrong.  We should not just say to ourselves, "Well, I'll just talk to the minister and he can straighten me out and give me an explanation and I will believe his explanation".  To pass the test, we have to settle it in our minds that we will believe what we see in the Bible, even contrary to Church of God teaching, until someone, from the Bible, shows us we are wrong.
    
I don't say we have to bring to the ministry every small matter and question.  Some things are minor and we can just wait till Christ returns.  What seems important and worth the time for research can vary from person to person.  I, personally, do not care if the marriage supper is in heaven or in the atmosphere or on the surface of the earth.  Christ knows and He will take us there and we will follow Him wherever He goes (Revelation 14:4).  Nor do I care if the one named "the man of sin" is the beast or the false prophet - as far as I am concerned, they are both men of sin.  Nor do I care if the "falling away" refers to the Church of God or the world - see 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4.  We know about the falling away in the Church and warnings about deception from other scriptures and from Church history, and we know about the deception of the world from other scriptures.  Whatever the "falling away" means in Thessalonians 2:3, it does not add to what I already know.  I give these as examples of things that are not important to me personally, and if I disagreed with the Church I would not take the time to bring it to the ministry.

But some things can be important to some of us, and we can take these to the ministry if we want to.  We should speak and listen respectfully and be humble and have an open mind, willing to see our errors and change.  The minister may be able to show us, from the Bible, our error, and that will resolve the matter.

But at the end of the day, if we still see something different in the Bible than what the Church and its leadership, traditions, and ministry teach, we have to pass the test by believing God rather than man if we want God to be able to use us to get the warning message out.

We have to believe God more than the Church as Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong did if we want to qualify to get a warning message out as they did.

And we should believe God quietly, not causing division, not discussing our "new knowledge" or disagreements with the Church with other members.  We need to live according to what we have learned and wait for Christ to reveal the truth to the Church in this age or when He returns.

And if we choose to believe the Church more than the Bible, saying, the ministers must know what they are talking about even though I do not see it in the Bible myself, then we are choosing to disbelieve God, and He will not be able to use us to get the warning out.  And then the warnings in Ezekiel 3:16-21 and Ezekiel 33:1-9 will apply to us - God will hold us accountable for the blood of those who die without a warning.

The fault would be ours if we don't get the warning out because we disqualify ourselves by disbelieving God, believing the Church more than what we see in our Bibles.  In that case, we could have gotten the warning out if we believed God, but we didn't.

Let's put our faith in God's word, the Bible, more than in the Church, our leaders, and our traditions, as Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong did.  Then God can use us to get a powerful warning message out while there is time.

Let's pass the test and do the work.
 

As many of you may know, we are approaching the 40-year anniversary of the death of Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong.  I believe I have posted in this blog some time ago about the possibility that God may regard this period of 40 years as a period of trial and testing for the Church of God.  In the Bible, the number 40 seems to represent a period of trial and testing.

Probably some of you have considered this possibility.

This is speculation - it may have no significance.

Anyway, I became curious as to when the 40 years ends according to the Hebrew calendar.  So I checked it out.

So this is for what it is worth, if anyone is interested.

Mr. Armstrong died January 16, 1986.  So according to our modern calendar, the 40 years will complete on January 16, 2026, a little more than two months from now.

I went to a website that converts between modern calendar dates and Hebrew calendar dates.  Using this website, I learned that January 16, 1986 was 6th of Sh'vat in the Hebrew calendar.  Then I learned that 6th of Sh'vat in 2026 will be January 24, 2026.  There may be several sites you can use to calculate this - I just typed in "Hebrew date calculator converter" in the Google search box and used the first site that came up, probably:

https://www.hebcal.com

You can try this yourself if you are interested.

So according to the modern calendar we use, it will be 40 years since the death of Mr. Armstrong January 16, 2026.  But according to the Hebrew calendar, it will be 40 years on January 24, 2026.

As I say, this may not have any significance, but I think there is a possibility that God has been testing and trying the Church of God for nearly 40 years.  I don't expect anything dramatic to happen on or shortly after the 40 years, but it has occurred to me that God has been testing us to see who will have an open door for getting the true gospel and the Ezekiel warning messages out to the nations of Israel between now and the beginning of the great tribulation, which may be several years from now.

Look at it this way.  For many decades, God had used Mr. Armstrong to do a powerful work and to discover and teach knowledge from the Bible.  Living in the Church was like living in a classroom with Mr. Armstrong as a teacher and the Bible as our textbook.  Mr. Armstrong taught us by direct teaching of doctrine as well as by his example, especially the example of his way of life as he shared with us in his autobiography.

Then God took him from us and gave the Church a test to see how well we learned, and that test - that final exam in a sense - has been taking place for the last 40 years as the Church of God has been severely scattered and made virtually powerless in regards to getting the work done.

The test is to determine to whom Christ will give the open door for doing the work.  The test can apply to every one of us.  He may be measuring us to see who really is Philadelphian in character.

If this speculation is true, we may see a more powerful work begin to appear in the near future.

I have estimated that we have many years yet, maybe about 10 or 15 or more, before the great tribulation begins.  There is a lot that has to happen.  Europe must become strong, the United States must become weak, and the Church of God needs to warn about 500 million people - that is a lot and is not likely to happen in just 2 or 3 years.

And no one in the Church of God is going to be able to get that job done without God's strong help.  

Maybe after the 40 year test is complete, God will know who He will use, who the group of Philadelphians will be, that He will begin to bless and use to do that work.

I am sure Philadelphians exist, and they may be scattered in different fellowships.  Maybe soon Christ will begin to gather them into one or a few fellowships to do a great work.

What happens if God commands and encourages us but we refuse to obey?

The Bible shows two kinds of examples.  God will put pressure on us and make us do it (Jonah), or He will reject us and choose someone else (king Saul).

I hope and pray that somebody does it.

Who Has Authority Over What You Believe?

It is obvious that God has ordained the ministry of the Church of God and has given them authority over the Church.  They need this authority to do their jobs.

What exactly is this authority?  And importantly, what are its limits?

When I speak of the ministry, I mean the whole ministry:  apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and local elders - all ordained ministers whether paid or unpaid, whether serving the Church of God full time or part time, including top leaders of fellowships, whether they be called pastor generals, presiding evangelists, or any other title.

Here is a list in the Bible of offices that the ministry may hold and roles that ministers and members may fulfill.

"And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues" (1 Corinthians 12:28).

"And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head - Christ - from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love" (Ephesians 4:11-16).

It is obvious from the context that one of the jobs of the ministry is to establish and teach sound doctrine and prevent the Church of God and its members from falling into doctrinal error.

The ministry as a whole has a job to do, which consists of many detailed functions.  Those functions can be found in various places in the Bible.

They have the function to establish and teach doctrine, which is made clear by what I have just quoted and by the examples of Paul in his letters and by other examples in the Bible.  The ministry has the authority to teach (Matthew 28:18-20, Acts 5:25-29, Acts 5:40-42).

God has not given the lay members the authority to teach other lay members things contrary to the teachings of the ministry.  Criticizing or contradicting the teachings of the ministry in conversation with other members undermines the God-given authority and role of the ministry and makes their job of teaching more difficult.  We may have different opinions about things, but trying to undermine the teaching work of God's ministry is a form of rebellion against God and His government, except in extreme cases in which the ministry is clearly teaching major heresy, in which case a member would not likely want to stay in that fellowship.

They have the authority to decide disputes between brethren.  In this, they have binding and loosening authority (Matthew 16:19, Matthew 18:15-18).

They have authority over the brethren in matters of the organized work of the Church.  In this we are commanded to obey them (Hebrews 13:7, 17).  However, we should never obey them if they command us to break God's law.  Obedience to God comes first (Acts 5:29).  Also, I believe that obedience to the ministry is always in the context of the organized work of the Church and relations between brethren.  I do not think that God's intent in telling us to obey the ministry is to give the ministry authority to micro-manage our lives.  I don't think the authority extends to telling us what color car to drive or whether to have chicken or beef for dinner.  In any case, a definite limitation to the authority of the ministry is that we must always obey God first.

The ministry has the authority to disfellowship and mark anyone who causes division (Romans 16:17, Titus 3:10-11).  They have the authority to disfellowship someone for open and unrepentant sin as a disciplinary measure (1 Corinthians 5:1-13).

But do they have the authority to command what you believe?  I am not talking about authority to teach.  I am talking about belief, that is, faith.  Do they have authority over your faith?  They can teach you something, and they should show you the evidence from the Bible, but what if you disagree?  What if you think they are misunderstanding the scriptures, or leaving out some important scriptures that could change the conclusion, or incorrectly putting the scriptures together?  What if you disagree on their conclusion?  Are you sinning for just disagreeing in your mind even if you are quiet about it and do not cause division?  Can the ministry command you to believe them?

Do they have rule over your faith?

Here is the plain answer from the Bible:  "Not that we have dominion over your faith, but are fellow workers for your joy; for by faith you stand" (2 Corinthians 1:24).

Paul says plainly that he and the other apostles did not have dominion over the faith of the members.

Dominion means authority or rule.  Faith is what you believe.  Paul says that he, and by extension the other apostles and ministers, did not have authority and rule over what the members believe.  So the ministry cannot command you to believe something.  They can command you not to cause division, which means openly discussing your disagreement with other members.  But not what you believe in your own mind.

This makes perfect sense when you compare it with other passages in the Bible.

Our faith must be towards God.  Faith is a form of worship, and only God should be worshipped.  It is wrong, and sin, to have faith in man.

And any man or leader or minister who presumes to command you to believe something, not because he has proved it to you in the Bible and you understand and agree with the proof, but based on his authority as a minister, or based on his faithfulness and trustworthiness as a faithful man, perhaps saying you should have faith that Christ is the head of the Church, implying that the minister must be right because he is following Christ's lead, is making an idol of himself and teaching the members to commit idolatry by worshipping him by giving him the faith that belongs only to God.

He could be causing members to sin, and there are serious penalties for that.  "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" (Matthew 18:6).

We have faith to believe God's word because we trust God that He is infinite and perfect in knowledge, understanding, and wisdom, and we trust Him to never lie to us (Titus 1:1-2, Hebrews 6:17-18).  That is why scripture cannot be broken (John 10:34).

But that is not true about men, even righteous men.  Every human is capable of both error and sin.  The Bible shows the faults of many of God's servants.  No human being is perfect as God is perfect.  That is why the whole emphasis throughout the Bible is that we should trust God, not men.

"It is better to trust in the LORD Than to put confidence in man.  It is better to trust in the LORD Than to put confidence in princes" (Psalm 118:8-9).

"The fear of man brings a snare, But whoever trusts in the Lord shall be safe" (Proverbs 29:25).

"Thus says the LORD: 'Cursed is the man who trusts in man And makes flesh his strength, Whose heart departs from the LORD.  For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, And shall not see when good comes, But shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, In a salt land which is not inhabited. Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, And whose hope is the LORD. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, Which spreads out its roots by the river, And will not fear when heat comes; But its leaf will be green, And will not be anxious in the year of drought, Nor will cease from yielding fruit" (Jeremiah 17:5-8).

"The entirety of Your word is truth, And every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever" (Psalm 119:160).

"Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth" (John 17:17).

"The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple" (Psalm 19:7).

To be fair, there is one verse (I have not found any other) that tells us to believe men, but it is in the context of God's prophets who wrote the Old Testament and spoke to Israel in the name of God.  "So they rose early in the morning and went out into the Wilderness of Tekoa; and as they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, 'Hear me, O Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem: Believe in the LORD your God, and you shall be established; believe His prophets, and you shall prosper' " (2 Chronicles 20:20).

Here we are told to believe God's prophets.  This is a statement by Jehoshaphat, not a "Thus says the LORD" from God.  Nevertheless, it is a good principle to follow provided we use it in the context in which it is used in this passage.  This is referring primarily to the prophets who spoke to Israel in the name of the LORD and who wrote the Old Testament.  Their word must be true because the Old Testament is part of the word of God, and scripture cannot be broken.  But this context does not apply to any man in the Church of God who calls himself a prophet or apostle.

The history of God's servants in the Bible and the history of the Church of God in our times shows that the Church leadership and ministry can make mistakes and can sin.

No one today is higher in rank than Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong, and he made mistakes, which he admitted, and he corrected his mistakes.  He also said to the public, don't believe me, believe the Bible.  

So what leadership and ministry teach and say is not always true.

But what God says in the Bible is always true, one hundred percent of the time.

So we should never give the faith that is God's due to any man or group of men.  That faith, that one hundred percent belief and trust, belongs to God alone.

To disbelieve God, or to believe man more than God, is sin.  Faith is a matter of law, one of the three weightier matters of the law (Matthew 23:23).  That means that to disbelieve God, to fail to have faith in His word, is a violation of the law and therefore sin (1 John 3:4).

So no, the human leadership and ministry of the Church of God never have authority to command you or any member of the Church to believe what they teach.  They have authority over the organized work of the Church.  They have authority to teach, and they should back up what they teach with the Bible.  They have the authority to command that you not cause division by undermining and contradicting the teachings of the Church in conversation with other members, and they have the authority to put you out of the Church if you cause division by contradicting them.  And in general, they have authority to command you concerning the organized work of the Church provided they do not command you to disobey God - you must always obey God rather than man.

But your faith in God and His word the Bible, your absolute belief and trust that what God says is true, is a personal matter between you and God alone, and the ministry has no authority over that.

No man or minister has the authority to command you what to believe.  Only God has that authority, through the Bible.

A faithful ministry should always teach doctrine by the Bible, and they should teach the members to believe God and His word the Bible more than they believe the ministry, and to do so without causing division by contradicting the ministry in conversation with other church members.

It is obvious that God has ordained the ministry of the Church of God and has given them authority over the Church.  They need this authority to do their jobs.

What exactly is this authority?  And importantly, what are its limits?

When I speak of the ministry, I mean the whole ministry:  apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and local elders - all ordained ministers whether paid or unpaid, whether serving the Church of God full time or part time, including top leaders of fellowships, whether they be called pastor generals, presiding evangelists, or any other title.

Here is a list in the Bible of offices that the ministry may hold and roles that ministers and members may fulfill.

"And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues" (1 Corinthians 12:28).

"And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head - Christ - from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love" (Ephesians 4:11-16).

It is obvious from the context that one of the jobs of the ministry is to establish and teach sound doctrine and prevent the Church of God and its members from falling into doctrinal error.

The ministry as a whole has a job to do, which consists of many detailed functions.  Those functions can be found in various places in the Bible.

They have the function to establish and teach doctrine, which is made clear by what I have just quoted and by the examples of Paul in his letters and by other examples in the Bible.  The ministry has the authority to teach (Matthew 28:18-20, Acts 5:25-29, Acts 5:40-42).

God has not given the lay members the authority to teach other lay members things contrary to the teachings of the ministry.  Criticizing or contradicting the teachings of the ministry in conversation with other members undermines the God-given authority and role of the ministry and makes their job of teaching more difficult.  We may have different opinions about things, but trying to undermine the teaching work of God's ministry is a form of rebellion against God and His government, except in extreme cases in which the ministry is clearly teaching major heresy, in which case a member would not likely want to stay in that fellowship.

They have the authority to decide disputes between brethren.  In this, they have binding and loosening authority (Matthew 16:19, Matthew 18:15-18).

They have authority over the brethren in matters of the organized work of the Church.  In this we are commanded to obey them (Hebrews 13:7, 17).  However, we should never obey them if they command us to break God's law.  Obedience to God comes first (Acts 5:29).  Also, I believe that obedience to the ministry is always in the context of the organized work of the Church and relations between brethren.  I do not think that God's intent in telling us to obey the ministry is to give the ministry authority to micro-manage our lives.  I don't think the authority extends to telling us what color car to drive or whether to have chicken or beef for dinner.  In any case, a definite limitation to the authority of the ministry is that we must always obey God first.

The ministry has the authority to disfellowship and mark anyone who causes division (Romans 16:17, Titus 3:10-11).  They have the authority to disfellowship someone for open and unrepentant sin as a disciplinary measure (1 Corinthians 5:1-13).

But do they have the authority to command what you believe?  I am not talking about authority to teach.  I am talking about belief, that is, faith.  Do they have authority over your faith?  They can teach you something, and they should show you the evidence from the Bible, but what if you disagree?  What if you think they are misunderstanding the scriptures, or leaving out some important scriptures that could change the conclusion, or incorrectly putting the scriptures together?  What if you disagree on their conclusion?  Are you sinning for just disagreeing in your mind even if you are quiet about it and do not cause division?  Can the ministry command you to believe them?

Do they have rule over your faith?

Here is the plain answer from the Bible:  "Not that we have dominion over your faith, but are fellow workers for your joy; for by faith you stand" (2 Corinthians 1:24).

Paul says plainly that he and the other apostles did not have dominion over the faith of the members.

Dominion means authority or rule.  Faith is what you believe.  Paul says that he, and by extension the other apostles and ministers, did not have authority and rule over what the members believe.  So the ministry cannot command you to believe something.  They can command you not to cause division, which means openly discussing your disagreement with other members.  But not what you believe in your own mind.

This makes perfect sense when you compare it with other passages in the Bible.

Our faith must be towards God.  Faith is a form of worship, and only God should be worshipped.  It is wrong, and sin, to have faith in man.

And any man or leader or minister who presumes to command you to believe something, not because he has proved it to you in the Bible and you understand and agree with the proof, but based on his authority as a minister, or based on his faithfulness and trustworthiness as a faithful man, perhaps saying you should have faith that Christ is the head of the Church, implying that the minister must be right because he is following Christ's lead, is making an idol of himself and teaching the members to commit idolatry by worshipping him by giving him the faith that belongs only to God.

He could be causing members to sin, and there are serious penalties for that.  "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" (Matthew 18:6).

We have faith to believe God's word because we trust God that He is infinite and perfect in knowledge, understanding, and wisdom, and we trust Him to never lie to us (Titus 1:1-2, Hebrews 6:17-18).  That is why scripture cannot be broken (John 10:34).

But that is not true about men, even righteous men.  Every human is capable of both error and sin.  The Bible shows the faults of many of God's servants.  No human being is perfect as God is perfect.  That is why the whole emphasis throughout the Bible is that we should trust God, not men.

"It is better to trust in the LORD Than to put confidence in man.  It is better to trust in the LORD Than to put confidence in princes" (Psalm 118:8-9).

"The fear of man brings a snare, But whoever trusts in the Lord shall be safe" (Proverbs 29:25).

"Thus says the LORD: 'Cursed is the man who trusts in man And makes flesh his strength, Whose heart departs from the LORD.  For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, And shall not see when good comes, But shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, In a salt land which is not inhabited. Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, And whose hope is the LORD. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, Which spreads out its roots by the river, And will not fear when heat comes; But its leaf will be green, And will not be anxious in the year of drought, Nor will cease from yielding fruit" (Jeremiah 17:5-8).

"The entirety of Your word is truth, And every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever" (Psalm 119:160).

"Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth" (John 17:17).

"The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple" (Psalm 19:7).

To be fair, there is one verse (I have not found any other) that tells us to believe men, but it is in the context of God's prophets who wrote the Old Testament and spoke to Israel in the name of God.  "So they rose early in the morning and went out into the Wilderness of Tekoa; and as they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, 'Hear me, O Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem: Believe in the LORD your God, and you shall be established; believe His prophets, and you shall prosper' " (2 Chronicles 20:20).

Here we are told to believe God's prophets.  This is a statement by Jehoshaphat, not a "Thus says the LORD" from God.  Nevertheless, it is a good principle to follow provided we use it in the context in which it is used in this passage.  This is referring primarily to the prophets who spoke to Israel in the name of the LORD and who wrote the Old Testament.  Their word must be true because the Old Testament is part of the word of God, and scripture cannot be broken.  But this context does not apply to any man in the Church of God who calls himself a prophet or apostle.

The history of God's servants in the Bible and the history of the Church of God in our times shows that the Church leadership and ministry can make mistakes and can sin.

No one today is higher in rank than Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong, and he made mistakes, which he admitted, and he corrected his mistakes.  He also said to the public, don't believe me, believe the Bible.  

So what leadership and ministry teach and say is not always true.

But what God says in the Bible is always true, one hundred percent of the time.

So we should never give the faith that is God's due to any man or group of men.  That faith, that one hundred percent belief and trust, belongs to God alone.

To disbelieve God, or to believe man more than God, is sin.  Faith is a matter of law, one of the three weightier matters of the law (Matthew 23:23).  That means that to disbelieve God, to fail to have faith in His word, is a violation of the law and therefore sin (1 John 3:4).

So no, the human leadership and ministry of the Church of God never have authority to command you or any member of the Church to believe what they teach.  They have authority over the organized work of the Church.  They have authority to teach, and they should back up what they teach with the Bible.  They have the authority to command that you not cause division by undermining and contradicting the teachings of the Church in conversation with other members, and they have the authority to put you out of the Church if you cause division by contradicting them.  And in general, they have authority to command you concerning the organized work of the Church provided they do not command you to disobey God - you must always obey God rather than man.

But your faith in God and His word the Bible, your absolute belief and trust that what God says is true, is a personal matter between you and God alone, and the ministry has no authority over that.

No man or minister has the authority to command you what to believe.  Only God has that authority, through the Bible.

A faithful ministry should always teach doctrine by the Bible, and they should teach the members to believe God and His word the Bible more than they believe the ministry, and to do so without causing division by contradicting the ministry in conversation with other church members.