Jason Fritts Sermons Removed from CGA Website

Someone mentioned in comments, and I have confirmed, that Mr. Jason Fritts's sermons have been removed from the CGA website.

This raises questions in my mind, and may in the minds of CGA members and former members.

Why?

What valid reason according to God's perfect law of love can there be for removing those sermons?

Is there something wrong with those sermons?  If so, why were they posted to the CGA website for so long?

Were those sermons beneficial and spiritually profitable?  Producing spiritually profitable sermons was one of the things CGA, out of members' tithes and offerings, was paying Mr. Fritts to do.  He was paid to feed the flock.  In a sense, the members paid him to feed them through their tithes and offerings.  In a sense, one could say that those sermons belong to the members and former members of CGA who paid Mr. Fritts to give them.

Did Mr. Fritts fail to do a good job with his sermons?  Apparently not according to CGA which posted his sermons for years.  If there was something wrong with them, why were they on the website for so long?  And why would CGA for years pay Mr. Fritts a salary if he was making bad sermons?

Have those sermons been helpful to members to go back and review past lessons?  I think so.

So why were they removed?

Were they removed because Mr. Fritts was causing division by raising up a new COG fellowship and trying to draw members out of CGA and into his own organization?  I don't think so.  I have heard no indication he has started a new group or is in the process of forming a new group.

Apparently he was fired for sticking to both the Bible and the teachings of Herbert W. Armstrong, and then he quietly began to attend someplace else, not causing division, not starting a new group.  I have listened to his sermons for years and I cannot recall him ever saying anything that contradicted CGA, Mr. Monson, or Mr. Armstrong.  He left as quietly as one could.  He has done his best not to cause division, as far as I can see.

So why take down his sermons that can be helpful to both CGA members and non-members alike?  Why take down those sermons that can help Church of God members draw closer to God?  Is that love?

CGA has repeatedly emphasized the point that they will not change Mr. Armstrong's doctrines.  They will not add to or change the doctrines he taught.  They think that they are holding fast to the truths he taught, thinking they are Philadelphians to whom Christ says, "hold fast", yet not holding fast to the way of life he and Loma practiced, the way of learning new things from the Bible and believing the Bible more than any man or church.

How ironic that the one issue that has seriously divided CGA was not some new doctrine or change someone proposed but one of the very points of doctrine that Mr. Armstrong was right about.  Mr. Armstrong taught that Jesus Christ is part of the true gospel.  That is also what the Bible teaches.

This was not "new truth".  This was what Mr. Armstrong taught.

And yet, here we seem to have a case where a leading minister was put out for sticking to what Mr. Armstrong correctly taught.

How unnecessary all this has been.  Anyone can make a mistake, and CGA could simply have admitted the mistake in not following Mr. Armstrong and the Bible correctly, and fixed it.  The members could have accepted that.  It would even be refreshing to hear the leader of a group say, I made a mistake.

So apparently CGA picks and chooses what teachings of Mr. Armstrong to keep and which ones to throw out.  Makeup also comes to mind.  Mr. Armstrong telling the Church before he died to follow the next pastor general (Mr. Tkach) also comes to mind.

And CGA is willing to divide the entire fellowship over the choices of what to retain and what to throw out from Mr. Armstrong's doctrines, but not according to God's word.

So what is the motive for removing Mr. Fritts's sermons?  Love?  Love for God and love for the brethren?  Agape love?  Philadelphia love?

Christ told Peter, "Feed My sheep".  For years, Mr. Fritts has done that.  Then, CGA removes that good spiritual food from the website.

So again, what is the motive?  Love?  Spite?  Fear?

Fear of what?  Mr. Fritts drawing members after himself?  But he has gone out of his way not to do that.  He has not started a new group nor apparently does he want to.  You couldn't leave more quietly and peacefully than he did.

It gets worse than that.  Every service has an opening prayer in which the man giving the prayer asks God's blessing on the service and asks God to bless the speaking.  Presumably God does that.  God the Father and Jesus Christ help to inspire the sermon.  That does not mean that the sermon speaker cannot make a mistake or always follows exactly where Christ leads.  They are human and can make mistakes.  Nevertheless, to the degree God answers the opening prayer for inspiration and blessing on the service, God is involved.

So those sermons that CGA has removed are not just the work of Mr. Jason Fritts but also the work of Christ.

So what Christ has built, CGA has torn down.

Removing Mr. Fritts's sermons from the CGA website has been a serious mistake in judgment.

I hope CGA will reconsider and restore Mr. Fritts's past sermons to their website.

"Therefore by their fruits you will know them" (Matthew 7:20).

If you have not done so yet, check out my last post for some details about what has happened and been happening.  This was published shortly before this one, so if you only check my blog every few days and look at the most recent post, you might miss noticing it.  Check it out.