Does Correction Cause Division?
God loves unity (Psalm 133:1-3). We are instructed to try to live in peace with others (Romans 12:18). We are instructed to avoid those who cause division (Romans 16:17). Satan is the accuser of the brethren (Revelation 12:10), and we should not judge others (Matthew 7:1-6). We are all familiar with these passages, and the leadership and ministry of most COG fellowships teach these things to maintain unity in the fellowships they are part of. All that is right and good.
But God also corrects and instructs His people and His servants to give correction, especially when that means delivering God's warnings from the Bible. Jesus Christ, our perfect example (John 13:15-16), said He came to bring a sword, not peace (Matthew 10:34-36). He harshly corrected the scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 23:13-36). God tells us to warn others (Proverbs 24:11, Ezekiel 3:17-21, Ezekiel 33:1-9, Isaiah 58:1).
There is a difference between Satan's accusations and God's warnings. Satan's accusations are motivated by hate and a desire to harm and tear down, while God's corrections are motivated by love and are designed to help others. When we warn others, we should be like God and deliver warnings to help others in a spirit of love, not as Satan accuses. It is in that spirit of desiring to help that I am trying to warn.
Loving correction and warnings do not themselves cause division, but how people react to right correction and warnings can cause division.
In the rest of this post, and in the posts that may follow, I am not accusing any individual of bad character, although I may say that some people in the Church of God are making mistakes in judgment.
It is possible for a converted person in the Church to make a mistake and not realize it.
I cannot read minds and I cannot judge character. Even if I could read minds, I do not have the wisdom to draw right conclusions about character as God is able to do. And I have no insider knowledge. None of what I write is based on special knowledge I have that is not available to others. This is all based on public information - writings on the Internet, sermons on the Internet, etc. It is also based on Church history, available to anyone who wants to do the research, and on the Bible, which all of us should know and live by.
Let each person make his own judgment based on known history, publicly accessible writings and sermons, and on the Bible, and let each person form his own opinions.
I give Bible reasons for what I say, and each reader can judge if I am applying the Bible correctly. If I am mistaken, please correct me in the comments and I will consider what is said with an open mind.
We all can make mistakes in judgment, and that is no reason to condemn someone. The Bible is full of history of God's servants that show their mistakes and flaws. Consider Gideon. You can read his story in Judges 6:11 through Judges 8:32. He is listed as among the people of faith in Hebrews 11:32. These died in faith, and the implication is, they will be in God's kingdom. Yet Gideon, after his victory, found himself caught up in idolatry. "Then Gideon made it [the gold] into an ephod and set it up in his city, Ophrah. And all Israel played the harlot with it there. It became a snare to Gideon and to his house" (Judges 8:27). Yet, apparently, Gideon will be in the kingdom (Hebrews 11:13).
My desire is to help in a spirit of iron-sharpens-iron and help others see their mistake or find out from others where I have made a mistake, for the good of all of us.
God is judge, I cannot read minds or judge character, but I can see apparent inconsistencies, and I can seek explanations for what look like inconsistencies to my mind.
If I cannot help others, then let others help me. Somebody is wrong. Someone is making a mistake.
Probably little I say here is entirely new - almost all of it I have said before in this blog, but I put it together now for emphasis.
It Is Vital We Preach the Gospel and the Ezekiel Warning to All Israel before the Great Tribulation Begins
God commands that we preach the gospel to the world (Matthew 28:18-20). He commands that we warn the wicked to repent (Isaiah 58:1, Proverbs 24:11, Ezekiel 3:17-21, Ezekiel 33:1-9).
We know from prophecy that the United States, Great Britain, and many other western nations are Israel, and that the great tribulation will fall on them as punishment for their sins if they do not repent (Jeremiah 30:7). And yet, the people of our nations do not all know they are doing wrong. There are millions of sincere religious people who keep Sunday, Christmas, and Easter and believe a lot of false doctrine thinking that they are serving God and Christ and doing the right thing. They are sinning, but they don't know they are doing wrong, because nobody told them.
They need a warning. They need to be told. "Cry aloud, spare not; Lift up your voice like a trumpet; Tell My people their transgression, And the house of Jacob their sins" (Isaiah 58:1).
They need to be told so they know that God was fair to give them a warning while there is time for them to repent and escape the punishment. They need this warning even if most of them do not heed it, because they need to know that God gave them every chance to repent. God's reputation for fairness and love is at stake.
Even those who do not heed the warning and do not repent until they are in the tribulation will give God credit for giving them a warning. They can accept responsibility for not heeding the warning. They can say to themselves, "This is my fault, I should have listened." This is a step towards true repentance leading to conversion and salvation. But if someone does not hear a warning, that person may say, "God is not fair. I did not know I was doing anything wrong by keeping Christmas and Easter and using pictures of Christ when I pray. No one told me. It's not my fault. Why is God punishing me? God is not fair. How can I trust Him?". The lack of a warning now will make their repentance later more difficult. Some may never fully repent and trust God, and they may ultimately lose their salvation.
Some say that the two witnesses will get the message out, and this will be sufficient. Wrong. The two witnesses will certainly get a message out, probably to all the world, but that will not make up for our lack of getting a warning out to Israel before the great tribulation begins. Why?
The two witnesses receive power and begin their special work at the beginning of the great tribulation, according to the time sequence of Revelation, not before.
The two witnesses receive their special power just at the start of the great tribulation (Revelation 11:1-12), not before. There is a good chance they will be preaching the gospel and a warning message before this, but not with the power and effectiveness they receive later. There is no assurance they will reach everyone before the tribulation starts.
What a cruel joke for the people to hear a warning after it is too late for them to heed it and escape. Once the tribulation starts, it will be too late.
It is up to us to get the warning out, and Christ promises an open door for Philadelphia. But how many of us are Philadelphia, and what leaders and ministers are Philadelphian?
To Have an Open Door for Preaching the Gospel and the Ezekiel Warning, We Need to Practice What We Preach
The only way we can effectively preach the gospel and Ezekiel warning is to tell the people, don't believe us, don't believe your own ministers, churches, traditions, or any man, believe the Bible, believe God. This is what Mr. Armstrong said, and it bore good fruit among those who were willing to believe the Bible first. And Mr. Armstrong himself did what he said. He believed the Bible more than any man, church, or tradition. That was his way of life. God blessed him for it.
But if we tell our members, believe Mr. Armstrong, or believe our leadership and ministry, let Mr. Armstrong or leaders in the Church of God interpret the Bible for you, we are hypocrites, not practicing what we tell others to do when we preach the gospel. How can God bless us? How can He give us an open door? And without an open door, how can we be Philadelphian? How can we do what God commands in Isaiah 58:1, Proverbs 24:11, Ezekiel 3:17-21, and Ezekiel 33:1-9?
No one can respond to our message without learning God's truth from the Bible. They have to learn new things they did not know before. They have to be willing to believe the Bible more than any man or tradition. We must be willing to do what we ask others to do. We must teach and practice the way of life of learning new knowledge from the Bible, letting the Bible correct us in doctrine, and believing what we see for ourselves in the Bible more than we believe any man, any tradition, any church, any COG minister, and any COG leader.
We cannot let anyone interpret the Bible for us. We must let the Bible interpret the Bible and let easy passages interpret difficult ones.
But what Church of God organization practices and teaches that today?
No wonder we are not getting the message out powerfully.
The Ministry Has No Authority over the Belief of the Members
The leadership (pastor, pastor general, presiding evangelist, "prophet", or "apostle" - whatever title is used - the top man in a fellowship) and the ministry under him have authority over the group and its members in many things. They have binding authority to resolve disputes between brethren. They have authority over how tithe and offering money is spent. They have authority over the content of the messages to the public that preach the gospel and the Ezekiel warning. They have authority over aid to the poor. They have authority over baptisms, anointing for the sick, ordinations, speaking schedules and pastor assignments, and hall rentals. They can disfellowship and mark for sin and rebellion.
And most importantly, they have authority over the official teaching of doctrine to the members. If they want to teach a doctrine to the public or the members and command that members not contradict that doctrine, they have the God-ordained authority to do so.
"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).
In other words, they have authority over the organized work of the Church.
But they do not have authority over the personal relationship each member has with God.
"But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God" (1 Corinthians 11:3).
"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28).
"Not that we have dominion over your faith, but are fellow workers for your joy; for by faith you stand" (2 Corinthians 1:24).
Ministers do not have authority over the prayers of the members. Our prayers go directly to God the Father in the name and by the authority of Jesus Christ. Neither does the ministry have authority over our Bible study and our faith to believe what God says in the Bible. These things are direct communication between every member and God the Father, by the authority of Christ. When we read the Bible and believe what it says, God is talking to us. When we pray, we are talking to God. The ministry is not part of this process. In their teaching role, they can certainly help us by teaching us what they think is the best way to study and pray, but our prayer and Bible study life is direct between us and God.
When we study the Bible, we should exercise faith to believe what we read. We should choose to believe what God says. That faith is towards God. Faith is a part of worship, and we should never have faith in man, any man, just as we should not worship any man in other ways. From one end of the Bible to the other, we are taught to trust and believe God, but not any man.
The only passage I have found that tells us to believe man is this: "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). I think the context of this is that we believe the prophets and the apostles who wrote the Bible under inspiration of God's Holy Spirit, whose writings are infallible and make up the word of God, which cannot be broken (John 10:35).
God is infallible. His word is always true (John 17:17, Titus 1:2, Hebrews 6:18).
The Bible is clear, and Church of God history confirms, that men, all men, even godly men in the Church, can and do make mistakes and can even sin. Only God is one hundred percent trustworthy.
That is why faith is a part of our worship of God. We must always have faith to believe God's word, but never faith to believe the ministry, except as they accurately teach from the Bible.
Here is the key scripture that proves that the leadership and ministry of a group do not have authority over the beliefs of its members:
"Not that we have dominion over your faith, but are fellow workers for your joy; for by faith you stand" (2 Corinthians 1:24).
Faith is what we believe. Dominion means rule or authority. This passage clearly says that the leadership and apostles do not have dominion or authority over the faith or beliefs of the members. They can teach what they believe and command that we not contradict, but they cannot command that the members believe what they say. They have no authority to tell us what to believe or to interpret the Bible for us, but only to show us what the Bible says and how the Bible interprets the Bible. They can reason with us and help us understand the Bible. But our faith must be towards God and the Bible alone.
This fits in perfectly with our preaching of the gospel to the public. When we preach to the public, we should say, don't believe us, believe the Bible. When prospective members come to our services, they should hear the same message, don't believe us, believe the Bible, and the ministry should show the answers from the Bible.
The ministry, if it is faithful, should teach the members to believe what they see for themselves in the Bible more than what they, the ministry, tell them about doctrine. The members must believe the Bible without contradicting the ministry in conversation.
God Tests our Faith - Will We Believe the Bible?
Studying the Bible can be a test of faith for any member. Will we believe what we read?
Suppose the Church teaches one thing, but you read something different in the Bible. How do you react? Of course, this may require study and perhaps discussion to make sure you really understand what the Bible is saying, and this may resolve it. But if it doesn't, who do you believe, God or man? That is a test. If you believe God more than the ministry, you pass the test. If you believe the Church and its ministry and tradition more than God, you fail the test.
It is not the ministry's job to interpret the Bible for you. Mr. Armstrong, when he was a lay member, never let Church of God ministry interpret the Bible for him. That is the Catholic approach.
Some people think that the Catholic Church is against the Bible and does not recognize the Bible as the inspired word of God. That is only partly true. In practice, that seems to be true, but they don't word it in those terms. They publicly acknowledge that the Bible is the word of God and is true. However, they also say that God appointed the Catholic Church to interpret the Bible for its members, to tell the members what it means.
We must not be like that.
Bible Passages often Misapplied
There are a number of Bible passages we are familiar with in the Church of God that may be misunderstood and misapplied by the ministry in asserting their presumed authority over the beliefs of the members.
These are all good passages and they are often used rightly. But they can be misused.
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths" (Proverbs 3:5-6).
This is an excellent passage when used correctly. Notice the context. The context is comparing our understanding with what God says. In other words, trust what God tells us more than what our own human reasoning tells us is best. The context is not comparing our reasoning with the minister's reasoning about what the Bible actually says.
What is the right way to use human reasoning? God gave us our minds and our brains for good, and it is good that we can understand and reason in a way that animals cannot.
In regards to doctrinal truth, the right way to use human reason is to use it honestly, the best we can, sometimes with the counsel of others, to understand what God is telling us and what a scriptural passage or collection of passages actually means - what is God saying, in other words.
This might involve buying a concordance or computer program to find all the passages on a particular subject so we can let the Bible interpret the Bible. Human reasoning can be involved in determinining which passages are figurative and which are literal. Human reasoning can be involved in looking up different translations. It can be involved in putting scriptures together in a way that makes sense.
But the object is to find out, what is God telling me?
Then, once we know what God is saying, we should exercise faith in God's word to believe what He says and do it.
This is where the wrong use of human reasoning can come into play. Let's say a man uses human reasoning to put scriptures together the right way to determine, correctly, that God says we should observe the Sabbath. So the man knows what God says. So far, so good. But then he uses human reasoning to say, "Well, I don't think it makes any difference what day we observe because one day is as good as another - I can worship God any day, right? I don't have to keep the Sabbath. As long as it's one day a week, that is sufficient". Now, he is no longer using human reasoning to honestly search out what the Bible says. Now, he is using human reasoning to say that God is wrong and he knows better than God. He has failed the test of faith.
And that can happen to ministers as well as lay members.
The Bible is God's word - God speaking. He speaks to all of us individually as well as collectively through the Bible, and when He speaks we better listen and believe Him. That is part of our personal relationship with God, and it does not go through the ministry. It is the essence of faith.
"There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death" (Proverbs 14:12, see also Proverbs 16:25).
This is another excellent passage. It tells us that we are fallible and that we can be wrong. But it does not mean we should trust other people more than ourselves. It means we should trust God more than ourselves. It warns us that we should do what God says more than the way we think is right.
This can apply to the ministry as much as to the members. A member may disagree with a minister about the Bible, and the minister may quote this to tell the member he could be wrong, but in his mind the member is not disagreeing with God but with the minister, another human being who can make mistakes. It is about a passage of scripture that the minister says means one thing and the member says means another. Either man, or both, could be wrong, and this verse can apply to both of them.
"The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:9).
This is another passage that humbles all of us and reminds us that we have human nature and can make mistakes and not admit them. It reminds us that we need God's help to understand the truth.
"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables" (2 Timothy 4:3-4).
"For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing" (Acts 17:21).
I have heard one or both of these passages used wrongly to imply that it is wrong to want to learn new things from God's word. That is ridiculous when you think about it.
Brethren come to services to learn from God's word. God made our minds to need things both old and new - new knowledge we did not have before combined with a framework of things that are familiar to us. If something is too new with nothing familiar, it is hard to grasp. If it has nothing new, just reminders of what we know, it is boring. Christ said, "Therefore every scribe instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old" (Matthew 13:52).
Christ is the Word of God in person, the Bible the word of God in print, the same word, as Mr. Armstrong taught. If Christ wants to teach us something through the Bible that we did not know before, a minister makes it more difficult when he compares a member's desire to learn from God with having "itching ears". Notice, the "itching ears" passage has to do with having itching ears for fables, not God's truth.
And what about those who listened to Herbert W. Armstrong on the radio from 1934 on? Did they have "itching ears" because they wanted to learn new knowledge, "new truth" for them, that they could check in their Bibles, that was different from their traditions?
"Itching ears" is a derogatory term because it comes from 2 Timothy 4:3-4, which uses the term in the context of turning away from the truth to fables. It should not be used to refer to members who want to learn new knowledge from the Bible, truth from God they did not have before.
"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children" (Hosea 4:6).
To put the above in context, imagine someone in the world who needs a warning rejecting our message because it is "new knowledge" and they do not want to have "itching ears".
For each of these passages I am listing, decide which ones override the passage that says the ministry does not have dominion over our faith.
"but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth" (1 Timothy 3:15).
Compare this with "not that we have dominion over your faith" (2 Corinthians 1:24). We have said that we must let the Bible interpret the Bible. We do this by letting clear scriptures interpret unclear ones. And along that line, literal scriptures often interpret figurative ones.
Which of those passages is literal and which is figurative?
The passage that says the ministry does not have dominion, or rule or authority, over the faith, or beliefs, of the members, is literal, not figurative. But the passage about the church being the pillar and ground of the truth is figurative. The church is not a piece of dirt, nor is it a piece of stone or metal used as a pillar. Those are figures of speech.
And common sense and Church of God history shows that this passage does not mean that everything the Church teaches is truth. God's true church certainly should teach the truth and must teach more truth than error I think, but it does not always teach the truth - sometimes it makes mistakes, and God allows that. So whatever this figure of speech means, it does not mean that the ministry is infallible and should be believed more than God's word, the Bible.
"knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:20-21).
The passage above, which is from the New King James Version, is a mistranslation. You can check the New International Version for this. It says, "no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation of things". The word "interpretation" should perhaps be best translated as "origin". Normally I would not prefer the NIV over the NKJV, but which one is right is made clear by what follows. Look at the word "for". This indicates a reason for what precedes. You could use the word "because" in place of it.
In other words, no scripture is of private origin because men spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. In other words, we know that scripture is not of private origin because it came from the Holy Spirit. This makes sense, but to say that it is of no private interpretation because it came from the Holy Spirit does not make sense.
Then we have the question of whose interpretation we should follow - the minister's? No, he is just as human as we are. We must let the Bible interpret the Bible.
Why We Must Believe the Bible First
It is vitally important that members believe the Bible first, that is, the Bible must be first in priority as a guide to what we believe. We must believe what we see for ourselves in God's word more than Herbert W. Armstrong, more than the human leader of the fellowship we attend, more than any minister, more than the Church of God, more than our doctrinal traditions, and more than even our own opinions and judgments.
Consider the following:
1. Faith is a weightier matter of the law (Matthew 23:23).
2. This means, obviously, that faith is a matter of LAW.
3. That means that the law requires faith.
4. Therefore, to not have faith, to disbelieve God, is a transgression of the law.
5. Since sin is the transgression of the law, or lawlessness (1 John 3:4), and the law requires that we believe God, not believing what God says is sin. This is confirmed by the book of Hebrews that equates disbelief, or "unbelief" as it puts it, with sin (Hebrews 3:12-19).
6. To sum up so far, not believing God is sin. If we disbelieve what we read in the Bible, we sin.
7. Therefore, if you are a minister, and if a member sees something in the Bible that seems to contradict the doctrines of the Church, and you, the minister, persuade him to disbelieve God's word that he sees, rather convincing him to believe the Church (current leadership and ministry or Herbert W. Armstrong), you are causing him to sin.
8. Therefore, Christ puts a curse on you, saying it would be better for you to be drowned in the sea than to cause someone (a little one) to sin (Matthew 18:6).
When a minister counsels with a member who disagrees on a point of doctrine, the minister should rely on the authority of God's word, interpreting scripture by scripture, not relying on the authority of minister or the Church. And if he cannot convince the member, he should accept that and wait for God to open the member's mind to understanding, provided the member does not talk about the matter with other members and thus cause division. He should never try to persuade the member to believe the Church more than God.
We Must Grow in the Knowledge of God's Truth
None of us is perfect and complete in knowledge. "For we know in part and we prophesy in part" (1 Corinthians 13:9). Our knowledge is not complete. God commands us to grow in knowledge, to let Christ teach us new things we did not know before. "but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3:18). This is a vital part of our relationship with and worship of God. We let Him teach us. We learn new things from Him as we study our Bibles all our lives.
Organized fellowships should learn new knowledge from the Bible, and so should members.
Never scorn or ridicule this important aspect of our relationship with God. Never accuse members of having "itching ears" because they want to learn from God. "Itching ears" is derogatory. It is only used in a negative way in the Bible (2 Timothy 4:3-4). It is not a compliment. Don't use it for members who want the ministry to help them learn from God's word. Reminding members of what they already know is good and has its place, but to do that excusively - not ever teaching anything new - is unbalanced.
Members come to services to be taught. Only reminding them of things they already know is not teaching them.
"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children" (Hosea 4:6).
The leadership and ministry must be willing to learn and to teach new things. And they must have an open mind towards suggestions sent in by members.
To scorn those who send in study papers and say, "God doesn't work that way", is absolutely wrong. Read Mr. Armstrong's autobiography. Did God work through Mr. Armstrong or not? He sent in study papers when he was only a lay member of the Church. Church of God Seventh Day rejected his papers, and God rejected them. God certainly does work that way.
God may indeed bring doctrinal errors to the attention of the leadership through study papers sent in by lay members. Mr. Armstrong himself, in an article entitled, "Should We Listen to Others", said that if a member sees something in the Bible that contradicts the teaching of the Church, he should tell his pastor or send the information to headquarters, NOT necessarily so the member can be corrected, but because there is a possibility that he may be right and the Church may be wrong, and Mr. Armstrong said that the Church wants to know if it is in error so it can make the correction.
So there are two witnesses here, figuratively speaking, that say that those who say, "God doesn't work that way", are wrong - Mr. Armstrong's personal example and his direct teaching in the article I referenced.
So why would a minister say, "God doesn't work that way"? Is it because he does not allow himself to think that God may open the mind of a lay member to something new, but not the minister first? Yet God can test both the minister and the member in this way. God used a lay member, Mr. Armstrong, to test the Church of God Seventh Day in exactly this way, and Church of God Seventh Day utterly failed the test, and God rejected that era of the Church from having an open door.
Likewise, has not Christ rejected the whole Church of God today from having a wide-open door for finishing the work of warning our nations before the tribulation begins while there is time for them to repent?
Are there any faithful, Philadelphian leaders or ministers today to whom God can grant an open door? If so, tell me who they are. I would like to know.
Characteristics of Philadelphia
Where is Philadelphia? How do we recognize Philadelphian fellowships or ministers or members?
How do we recognize if we ourselves are Philadelphian in character? What do we look for? If we are not, where do we fall short? What do we have to overcome to be counted by God as Philadelphian in character and be given an open door and allowed to go to a place of safety before the great tribulation begins?
Philadelphia is a past era of the Church. That era is over, as an era. We are in the Laodicean era right now.
But there can still be scattered Philadelphians today, but not a majority. There must be Philadelphians, before the end, to finish the work and go to a place of safety.
I have no doubt that at some time a Philadelphian leader and ministry will become visible and will gather scattered Philadelphians into one fellowship that will be given an open door and will finish the work before the end. What will it look like?
Judge for yourself, but these are the characteristics I will look for.
A Philadelphia fellowship will be governed from the top down, not by the voting of men. God does not use democracy to govern. The kingdom of God will not be governed democratically, and we are here to learn the ways of life we will practice in the kingdom of God. Christ rules from the top down through a leader He appoints by appointment from a previous leader or by showing the fruits.
A Philadelphia fellowship will have strong zeal for preaching the gospel and the Ezekiel warning to all Israel and much of the world before the great tribulation begins. That zeal will be shown in their budget, which will devote close to half of the budget for that purpose. That zeal will be visible in other ways as well.
A Philadelphia fellowship will teach its members not to contradict the ministry or criticize the ministry in conversation with other members. This is a prerequisite to the next and final point.
A Philadelphia fellowship will teach its members to believe the Bible more than the Church and to be willing to be corrected in doctrine and to learn new knowledge from the Bible. The leadership and ministry will practice these things themselves, receiving study papers and suggestions with an open mind, and making changes or additions to doctrine as instructed by the Bible.
This is the kind of fellowship that follows the instructions of the Bible as well as the instructions and example of Herbert W. Armstrong, and is the kind of fellowship Christ can give a wide-open door to for finishing the work, as He gave to Mr. Armstrong when he was alive.
Consider this for everything I say in this post. Am I completely off track? Am I saying what is right, or am I just a crazy, vain, puffed-up rebel with a bad attitude?
I give scriptural support for what I say. No one refutes me on this, though my comments are open. If you notice I have few comments, you might think I reject most of them. Not true. I reject very few. The fact is, I get very few. You can comment anonymously - that is fine. But no one shows me from the Bible that I am wrong. But I do get traffic. I get the stats from my blog platform. People read, or at least look and skim, but they do not show me that I am wrong using the Bible.
But I have proof to help back me up.
Look at the fruits (Matthew 7:15-20).
Does any Church of God fellowship in existence today have a wide-open door for the gospel and the Ezekiel warning message as Mr. Armstrong had? No, absolutely not. You are deluding yourself if you say, yes.
The need is greater than ever, but it is not being met. There must be a reason. If it is not the reason I offer, then what?
Something is wrong. If you think I am mistaken, tell me what else it is. But something is wrong.
The Role of Herbert W. Armstrong
Mr. Armstrong had an important role in the modern history of the Church of God. He was the one God used to raise up the Philadelphia era of the Church. Christ gave him a wide-open door for preaching the gospel and the Ezekiel warning to Israel. The work was said to be growing at a rate of 30% a year. At one point, we had a magazine circulation of over seven million, and still growing.
The Church has taught that he was the Elijah to come to restore all things, and I think this is right. He was said to be an apostle, and I think he was. If he was not an apostle, then I don't know what an apostle is.
He had several roles. One of his roles was to raise up the Philadelphia era of the Church. Another was to restore lost knowledge, which he did. Another role was to preach the gospel to the world as a witness, and this included the Ezekiel warning. He did that too, to an extent in his lifetime.
But most of the people who heard the gospel from him, or a large proportion, are gone. A new generation has arisen to replace the generation in his day. Most of them never heard of Mr. Armstrong or the true gospel.
I am sure Mr. Armstrong would have been surprised and would disagree if someone told him that after his death nearly forty years, and no doubt more, would go by before the great tribulation would begin. He expected it to happen soon.
His role was not to give the final warning to our generation before the end, though he probably thought it was. His role was to prepare the way and start the ball rolling, to give us the pattern of the work, and to build up the Church of God, but it is up to Philadelphians today, their role, to get the final warning out to people in our generation who will live to see the tribulation.
Likewise, though he restored much knowledge, probably the most important knowledge, he did not necessarily restore everything personally by his own effort. He set the pattern, he showed us how to let the Bible interpret the Bible, and he set the ball rolling, also setting an example for us, but it is the role of Philadelphians today to finish that work.
The Elijah Issue
The Bible indicates that before the end God would send Elijah to restore all things.
"And His disciples asked Him, saying, 'Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?' Jesus answered and said to them, 'Indeed, Elijah is coming first and will restore all things' " (Matthew 17:10-11).
We have long understood that "all things" refers to doctrinal knowledge and that the Elijah to come refers to Mr. Armstrong. I think we are right on both counts. I cannot imagine anyone restoring more knowledge than Mr. Armstrong.
But a study of the life of the first Elijah indicates that his work continued after he was gone. Elisha carried on the work that God gave to Elijah - Elijah did not do it all personally. Likewise, Mr. Armstrong did not do everything that needs to be done to fulfill his role personally, but some of it is delegated to us. Preaching the gospel and a warning message to this last generation is an example of something we must continue today, but restoring lost knowledge is another thing that should continue.
Perhaps God will not reveal anything new to us, but we must have a willing mind. We must be willing to learn new things.
Yet, some leaders of fellowships have built an atmosphere of distrust and avoidance of new knowledge that discourages members and ministers from suggesting changes, making it harder for Christ to teach new things to the Church. The leaders are unwilling to learn new things, and they discourage other ministers and members from learning new things that Christ would teach the Church through the Bible.
Can Only Apostles Learn New Knowledge and Preach the Gospel?
Do you have to be an apostle to learn new knowledge from the Bible? Do you have to be an apostle to preach the gospel and the Ezekiel warning to the world?
The answer to both questions is no.
There is no restriction in the Bible I have found that indicates that only an apostle can learn new knowledge from the Bible or that only an apostle can preach the gospel to the public.
Anyone can learn new knowledge from the Bible if he or she is willing to believe God. Mr. Armstrong was not an apostle or even an elder but just a lay member when he learned about the need to keep the holy days and about the modern identity of the lost ten tribes, according to his autobiography and things he has said in his sermons.
And you don't have to be an apostle to preach the gospel. Mr. Armstrong preached the gospel before he was ordained, if I remember the account in the autobiography correctly. And in Acts 8:3-4 the scattered Church preached the gospel everywhere while the apostles stayed in Jerusalem. Philip, who I understand was a deacon, also preached the gospel to an Ethiopian man (Acts 8:26-40).
Don't Mock the Faith in God of Members!
You may be a high-ranking pastor or evangelist in a major Church of God fellowship, maybe the top man. Now imagine you are just a lay member. You have a relationship with God - a good one. You are striving zealously to love God with all your being and your neighbors as yourself. You trust God and believe whatever He says in the the Bible. God knows this and loves you deeply for it. What He says in Isaiah 66:1-2 applies to you.
Now you, as a lower ranked lay member, discover something in the Bible, some new knowledge you did not have before and you never heard in the Church. You are thrilled and excited, even joyous, to learn something new from God. You want to share it with others, so you write up a paper and send it to the top man at headquarters. You are trying to practice the give way of life. And God is pleased with your attitude and your faith in His word. You really believe what God says, as did Abraham.
That belief and trust in God's word is a dominant characteristic of your relationship with God, and God loves it.
But now go back to your role as leader. A lay member as I described sends in a study paper. That paper, whether correct or incorrect, is based on faith in God's word. And you scorn that faith. You ridicule it. You mock his relationship with God, a relationship that is precious in God's sight. You make fun of it, saying that member is caught up in a personal, doctrinal idea-baby. All because he believes what God says in the Bible.
When you mock a member's faith in God, who are you mocking? You are mocking his relationship with God. But who are you mocking? You are mocking the member (and the entire membership for that matter), but who else are you mocking? Are you not mocking both God the Father and Jesus Christ? Are you not scorning God when you scorn the faith of a member in God? And you are not doing this privately. You are doing it in the presence of the entire fellowship. You are ridiculing God Himself! That is a very dangerous thing. Don't do it.
And when you criticize those who send in study papers, "by the pound", you are criticizing Mr. Armstrong, because while he was a lay member he sent in a 300-page proof of the identity of the lost tribes of Israel to Church of God Seventh Day, as I recall from his autobiography.
Imagine you deeply love your wife and children. If you hear someone poking fun, making jokes, ridiculing, mocking, scorning the relationship you have with your wife and children, will that not make you angry? And will not God become angry when you mock His relationship with His children and when you mock Christ's relationship with His bride, both of which are based on faith in God's word, even faith inspired by the Holy Spirit? Don't do it.
Personal doctrinal idea-babies. How clever you are! What a cute phrase. You should be in advertising. Satan must love that term for faith in the Bible.
I guess you think the identity of the lost tribes of Israel doctrine was Herbert W. Armstrong's personal doctrinal idea-baby, which he, as a lay member, submitted in a study paper measured in pounds. I guess you also think his doctrine that we should observe the annual holy days was an idea-baby too.
But it doesn't get you the open door you need to obey God's commands in Isaiah 58:1, Proverbs 24:11, Ezekiel 3:17-21, and Ezekiel 33:1-9, does it?
If you disagree with Mr. Armstrong's way of life, say so openly and prove your case, but don't mock his example of faith in God's word, the Bible, hiding behind ridicule.
Don't Make an Idol of the Ministry
This applies to both the membership and the ministry. For members, do not make idols of the leadership and the ministers of the fellowship you attend. And for ministers, teach and warn the members not to make idols of you and the other ministers.
Making idols of the ministry may be the most invisible, most well-hidden sin in the Church of God.
It would be natural for some members to make idols of the ministry. Why not? Ancient peoples made idols of stone, wood, and metal. Why? There is something in human nature that cries out for something visible to represent something they want to worship. But no limited image can represent the infinite God. That is why God gave us the second commandment.
How can a member make an idol out of the ministry? By obeying the ministry more than God. By having a more loyal relationship with ministers and the visible Church than with the invisible God. By believing the ministry more than God and His word, the Bible. By having more faith in the words of the ministry than the words of the Bible.
And how would that look to a minister? Would he be able to see it as it is? Or would it look like the member is very converted, close to God, having good spiritual discernment, of excellent reputation? Would the member who worships the ministry more than God seem to be of excellent character, always willing to serve, never complaining, never disagreeing, never causing division, faithful in paying tithes, regular in attendance? Would that member be giving prayers, sermonettes, split-sermons, and eventually sermons? Would he be made a deacon, then later ordained as a local elder? Do you get the picture?
To others, he would seem the ideal member, but God knows His heart, that it is not loyal to God.
The man himself would probably not realize he is sinning.
And if this is a problem or a potential problem, why do the ministers never give sermons warning about the dangers of this sin? The answer is obvious. They don't see it. It is invisible to them.
We in the Church of God may not see this in ourselves, but we will soon see it in the world when the masses are deceived and make idols of men.
Those who go through the great tribulation will likely get a very close view of this sort of thing. And maybe at that time their eyes will be opened, and they will know that this very thing, on a smaller scale, has existed in the Church of God for a long time.
We should not obey God because the minister tells us to. We should respect and obey the minister because God tells us to. God should come first, the Church second. And if we believe Church doctrine, we should believe it because we see it for ourselves in the Bible, and the ministry can help us find it. But we must believe the Bible for what it really says, not for what the minister says it says. Let's keep our priorities straight.
Believing the ministry on doctrine more than what we see for ourselves in the Bible and letting the ministry interpret the Bible for us instead of letting the Bible interpret the Bible is idolatry, and ministers who teach members to believe them directly, not proving doctrine by the Bible, are hypocrites like the Pharisees.
Such belief in the teaching of the leadership and the ministry is often justified by saying that Christ is the head of the Church. The implication is that, because Christ is the head, He leads every decision, and every decision comes from Christ.
A minister may ask, who is the head of church administration? Who is the head of media? The person speaking would list several departments that way. In every case, the intended implication is, because Christ is the head of the Church, he is also the head of every department, therefore do not disagree with the decisions of any department. This is ridiculous. Christ is not the head over any department. He is the head of the Church, the whole Church. Heads of departments are different offices, delegated offices, and the men who head those departments can sin and can make mistakes in their decisions, and Christ may allow that.
Let's see how ridiculous that idea is, that Christ is the head of every department because He is the head of the Church.
Who rules the universe? God the Father. But God has delegated rule over the entire universe to Jesus Christ. "And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, 'All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth' " (Matthew 28:18).
Now, who is the ruler of this world?
Oops!
Do you see where I am going?
Christ rules the universe, but Satan has a delegated position of authority as ruler of this evil world, this society. Satan can only do what Christ allows, but Christ does allow Satan to do many wrong things. We cannot say Christ is head of this world, this society, just because he is ruler of the universe.
Likewise, just because Christ is head of the whole Church of God does not mean He is the head of every department and that every decision in the Church is right. It certainly does not mean we have to agree with every decision made in the Church.
Christ leads perfectly, but human beings do not perfectly follow where Christ leads. Church of God leaders and ministers can and do make mistakes in doctrine, but our faith should be in the Bible.
I heard one man say we should watch the telecast to see what Christ is saying to the nations. That is wrong. It implies that what the presenter is saying is what Christ wants him to say, and that is not necessarily true. We should read the Bible to see what Christ wants us to say to the nations, and we can watch the telecast to see if the presenter is saying those things or not.
Just because Christ leads does not mean the ministry follows.
Ministers Can Make Mistakes, and When They Do Those Mistakes Should Be Corrected
I think everyone acknowledges that servants of God can make mistakes. This is obvious from the Bible and from history.
And sometimes a man, anyone, can use the help of others to see his mistake. This is where wise counsel come it. That is why there is safety in a multitude of counselors (Proverbs 11:14, Proverbs 24:6). A leader may need counselors to help him see his mistakes. Notice how Naaman was about to make a mistake but his servants corrected him, and he heeded their correction (2 Kings 5:1-14).
One good attribute of Mr. Armstrong was that he was willing to admit his mistakes and correct them. He did this in regards to doctrine, such as Pentecost being on a Monday. And that process should continue today. There is no guarantee that Mr. Armstrong corrected every mistake he ever made in doctrine. His writings may still contain some mistakes, and when the Church discovers them, it should correct them and teach the truth.
And every leader and minister in the Church should have the humility to admit mistakes and correct them, just as lay members should do in their lives.
Handling Disagreements
How should disagreements between the ministry and lay members over doctrine be handled?
If a lay member disagrees on a point of doctrine, he should not discuss it with other members. That would create division. He should not contradict the ministry of the fellowship he attends with other members. But he must believe what he sees in the Bible more than he believes the Church.
If it is a very small matter, he can elect to not raise it with the ministry but "put it on the shelf" and wait for Christ's return.
But if he chooses, he may discuss it, either in person or in correspondence, with the ministry or headquarters in private.
But wisdom is needed, and he should pray that God give him wisdom to know whether he should bring it up or not. In the current circumstances in the Church of God, in some fellowships, the leadership and ministry may not be open to correction from lay members. They may view it as rebellion. In such cases, it may be better, if the issue is small, to just keep it quiet and not discuss it with even the ministry. We should anticipate bad consequences and avoid them. "A prudent man foresees evil and hides himself, But the simple pass on and are punished" (Proverbs 22:3, also Proverbs 27:12).
But the member may be able to discuss it with the ministry. He should be respectful and have an open mind, willing to learn and admit error. In many cases, perhaps most cases, he has made a mistake and the minister can show him where he is wrong.
The ministry should also have an open mind and not just reject the position of the lay member because he is a lay member or because what he says is new and different. God may reveal new knowledge, through the Bible, by opening the mind of the lay member first and having the lay member present it to the ministry. Don't forget, Mr. Armstrong was once a lay member. Why would God do this? Isn't government from the top down?
God may do it to test both the member and the minister. Is the minister humble enough to accept correction and learn from a lay member? Will the lay member respect authority and not contradict the ministry in discussion with other members? Will both approach the subject with humility and a willingness to admit to being wrong?
Suppose the lay member writes up a study paper and sends it to headquarters. Some leaders scorn this, and there is little point in sending it to them. But the leadership should be receptive to papers sent in, in principle anyway. There can be a practical problem if the volume of papers sent in is large - the leadership will not have time to address everything that comes in, in detail. Lay members should understand this.
In this case, a wise leadership will teach the church guidelines for submitting suggestions and questions. There should be an understanding that the ministry cannot read every long study paper that comes in - there would be too much. Perhaps a cover letter that summarizes the document would be required, and there can be a size limit.
Generally, the Church should respect and reply to submissions. If the question has been researched before, the results of that research should be shared with the submitter. But the reasons, from the Bible, should be given for the Church's position. The Church should not just say, "We have studied this", and give the conclusion, but should share all the scriptures and points of logic that went into the decision. The member's faith must always be pointed to the Bible, not the ministry.
If the issue is not resolved and disagreement persists, the member should wait for Christ to resolve it when He returns, and in the meantime he should not discuss it with others.
If it is too major a thing for that, then the member is free to leave the fellowship - he can then say what he wants outside the fellowship.
Building an Atmosphere of Faith in the Church
Efforts have been made to build an atmosphere of faith in the Church through sermons and articles that emphasize faith.
But faith is a gift from God, and to build an atmosphere of faith we need God to put faith into the Church by giving members the gift of faith by the Holy Spirit.
I do not expect God to do this if our faith is pointed in a wrong direction.
Having faith in the human leadership and ministry is a wrong direction. I do not expect God to give us faith if this is what we are practicing. Our faith must be towards God alone.
Obedience Outweighs Unity
There is much talk about unity in the Church of God. Interestingly, we have very little unity in the whole Church of God. But each fellowship tries to have unity for itself, but without unity with other fellowships.
But God values obedience more than unity. As pleasent as unity may be, it must not come from disobedience or unfaithfulness to God and His word, the Bible.
God commands that we do what we have to do to get the true gospel and the Ezekiel warning message out to the nations. We need to do that effectively, and we do not have many years left to do a massive job.
To do this, we need to teach and practice the Philadelphian way of life, of which Herbert W. Armstrong is an example for our learning. This includes teaching and practicing the way of believing the Bible more than the Church and being willing to learn new things from the Bible and be corrected in doctrine by the Bible.
There must be a fellowship to do this before the end, even if that fellowship does not yet exist. We need to pray for it and wait for God to raise it up.
