Why Stoned Stephen Society?

"Looks like there is another disgruntled member taking to blogging." That will be the snarling remark in HQ board meetings as they play Titus 1:10-11 in their minds over and over.

"For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers...whose mouths MUST BE STOPPED, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, [always ignoring the rest of the statement] for filthy lucre's sake."

Spending decades of my adult life in the churches of God, I have seen many friends come and go. More often than not, they had a negative personal experience with another member or their minister or both, that served as the catalyst for becoming critical and exiting stage right. These types of incidences always made it easy to side with the church and not so much with the disgruntled. To make their case worse, these angry exiters often would get wrapped up in irrelevant picky points of doctrine, making themselves more pharisaical than the ministry they attack. 

So when I first started sharing some of my disagreements about church teachings to close friends, the first thing I could see them do was try to determine who I had a beef with and why. Makes sense. I do the same thing. I could tell some of them were frightened by the prospect that I was actually making objective and logical sense. Once they could see I was not motivated by anger or a personal slight or offense, and that my objections were sound, the obvious question they would then ask was, "So what are you going to do about it?"

The question baffled me for 3 years. I had no idea what to do. My temporary solution was to do nothing. As I pointed out in David V. Barrett's book in my previous post, he stressed how in the churches of God's top-down hierarchy, all the power and control rests at the top and the laity has no power, no influence and no voice. But there are two things that have changed that.

Barrett points out that the most important leader in a "New Religious Movement" is not the founder but the second leader. The movement will make or break upon the 2nd leader's ability to legitimize the movement or destroy it. Unlike the Seventh Day Adventists, the Mormons and the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Worldwide Church of God failed to legitimize after the death of its founder. What followed was a corporate rejection of the Armstrong movement and the formation of competing factions led by middling managers with no charisma or credibility. 

This diffusion of power and control has given brethren options. This is quite powerful because one of the most controlling aspect of WCG was it's "one true church" teaching in which it was expected that everyone understood that meant the corporate entity known as WCG. With no charismatic leaders to follow, people just landed where their ministers did and if there was any disagreement with a teaching or a personal falling out occurred with brother or minister, another church of God was probably just a few more minutes closer or further away.

The other game-changer is the internet. Before Google, the only thing people had as a resource concerning the cultic abuses of WCG was Ambassador Report that went largely unknown until it was made available on the internet. The churches of God no longer have the means to control the flow of information. Barrett concludes the churches of God movement will continue to wither on the vine because the internet kicks open closets and drags skeletons into the light of day for everyone to see. Couple that with elitist leaders who think they can ignore and defy reality, and there should be no wonder why there is no influx of new members.

Heterodox or nonconforming (I had to look it up too) religious movements create alternative realities for their believers. This actually serves to isolate members, blinds them from reality and causes them to adhere to a culture where you never question the groupthink. If and when this "spell" is ever broken, that is where emotional trauma, anger and bitterness  enter. I certainly went through my share of it that first year. I was mostly angry at myself and embarrassed that a free-thinking and intelligent person such as myself would be deceived. But I couldn't let the emotional and personal aspect of the moment dictate my actions. I forced myself to step back and pray and wait and meditate and study. I had to let time ensure reason and objectivity was at the forefront of my thinking.

So people ask, "Why do you stay involved? Why do you attend services?" At the end of the day, I had to determine if the people in my life in the last 2 plus decades are really my brethren. And do I love those brethren? I realized I really did have an invested interest in these people. And I also came to realize after studying how the WCG also traumatized the ministry, that the ministers were victimized as well. I am not excusing their sins as the abusers. It's just a matter of recognizing that in a cult setting of concentrated power and control, even the abusers are victims. 

Many have thrown their hands up in the air and walked away, erasing the existence of their time and experience completely from their lives. That is ok. I understand that. But there is a spectrum of response. I see it every day on Banned by HWA and I appreciate everyone's perspective. It is theirs. 

This is mine. If these people are my brethren and I love them, then I am staying. But I will not shut up. This blog is for people like me who love the people, want to stay and encourage positive change but don't know what to do or how to do it. The most important thing I think we can do is be informative without the vitriol. How information is presented can be more important than the information itself.

This blog is for those that understand that no one has the market cornered on all truth. This is for those that have the patience to dissect ideas and beliefs and recognize there are decent, dare I say, Biblical ones, even in the churches of God. Even if the baby is ugly, I still don't want to toss it with the bathwater.

My ultimate goal is to give a greater voice to brethren in hopes we reach a point where the leaders are forced into one of three directions. I am ok with any one of them or a combination of all three:

1. Dissolve.
2.  Reform.
3. Merge.

The key is to no longer allow business as usual. It is time to stir the pot and effect change. The churches of God must shed their cult skins and revert to congregational governance. They must strip their statements of belief to a small core and encourage people to really study their Bibles and develop their own understanding. Spreading information, making connections, building bridges anonymously through the power of the internet, and withholding financial support is the best way I can see to empower both laity and ministers afraid to speak out. I refuse to leave the next generation to wallow in an institution that has not changed or grown in over 60 years.  The organizations may not be salvageable but the people certainly are.

Another 10 years and the guiltiest among the organizations will be dead or out of  power. I am hopeful the next generation of ministers (some of which are my friends) coming into power will begin a reformation. If they don't, then we will simply witness the churches of God continue on toward the dust bin of history and the brethren find new places to go or, better yet, create new congregational entities patterned after the parent church, Church of God (Seventh Day).


V

Who Causes Division?

The Church is a (Holy) Spirit led group of individuals defined in Scripture as the body of Christ that precludes human organization. Those who belong to Christ will have love for one another. They will do what it takes to fellowship with one another and not seek for reasons to divide. In my area, there are at least 4 (probably more) Church of God organizations that all meet in separate places and are all within 10-30 minutes of each other. Most of these people know each other and were all in the same fellowship at one time. Many still recognize those meeting 10 minutes away as their brethren. Many believe we should all be in one place to fellowship. So who has caused this division? Who is responsible? Who is able to cause division?

We are told we must all speak the same thing and be in one accord. How is that even possible? A new person certainly doesn’t think and say the same things that someone who has been around 40 years. And anyone who has courageously discussed Bible topics with others knows that there are many different opinions on doctrines and prophecies in the church. That is true even among the ministers. What is the bar setting to let us know we are all speaking the same thing? Does the Bible even tell us to all speak the same thing?

I Corinthians 1:10 is often misapplied in telling the brethren that we must all speak the same thing and that anything short of that is causing division and involves a spirit of rebellion. Is that really what Paul meant?

“Now I plead with you brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.”

“For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe’s household, that there are contentions among you.”

“Now I say this, that each of you says, ‘I am of Paul’ or ‘I am of Apollos’ or ‘I am of Cephas’ or ‘I am of Christ.’”

“Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?”

“I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, lest anyone should say that I had baptized in my own name.”

The division being caused is brethren that are upholding certain men as their leaders in unhealthy ways that would lead to oppression. We are not to follow after and idolize men. It would seem that early on, there was a desire among people to want an overseer that they could look up to and designate as a leader or a champion. This champion would usurp thinking and decision-making and the people would have it so.

Paul even tells Timothy in II Timothy 4:3 that, “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.” For many in top-down authoritative churches, Bible study and discussions are replaced with pontificating sermons. If that does not describe the organizations filled with paid teachers to satisfy itching ears instead of inquisitive minds that should be reading the Bible, then I don’t know what Paul means.

Paul states the solution to this problem at the very beginning.

“…that you all speak the same thing…in the same mind and in the same judgment.”

“Same” is used 3 times and is the Greek: AUTOS, which means “yourself”. The verse, based on the context, should actually read more like this:

“Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak for yourselves and that there be no divisions among you [whereby you are choosing men to speak for you] but that you be perfectly joined together by the use of your own mind and your own judgment.”

The truth is, this verse is the exact opposite of how it is used in sermons to quash critical thinking and questioning and just become one in a hive-mind. This is exactly what Paul believed how brethren should be, owning their own minds and exercising them: not allowing their minds to be usurped by the teaching of another man, including himself. The Bereans in Acts 17 were called “fair-minded” because they did not just accept anything that was told to them. They studied, cross-examined, things that were said to determine in their own minds if what they heard was true or false.

This was a huge concern to Paul; that leaders would come along to draw away followers in their own name. It is human nature to want to put off our responsibilities onto others. It is easy to hand over personal responsibility to think and study and discern and give that power over to a champion. Wolves in sheep clothing know this. Those who preach only out of selfish gain know this. In a Forbes list of top 10 occupations sought out by psychopaths, “religious leader” made the list!

I Corinthians 2:15, still within the context of division caused by following after men, Paul says, “But he who is spiritual investigates all things, while he himself is rightly investigated by no one.” In other words, a converted individual “proves all things” and by doing so, never allows himself to be judged  by another man (possibly one who claims to be a special leader). The true Christian will not lazily follow any man or give up his right to question and challenge all things. We must each work out our own salvation and not give ourselves up to human idols and organizations that work against these Biblical warnings from Paul to not give up our individual sovereignty.

Diotrephes is the perfect example of what happens when we give ourselves over to human idols and is exactly what Paul was afraid would happen. Diotrephes became a cult leader who exalted himself, ran down other churches and other ministers, causing division and put people out of church if they didn’t blindly follow his version of truth.

Jude 19 talks about, “sensual persons who cause divisions, not having the Spirit.” These persons are described in verse 16 as, “grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage.” The context in which this is used in sermons is usually that this is describing disgruntled laity. But what kind of effect would a lay member have going around with this attitude? Probably, not much.

“Divisions” in Jude 19 is APODIORIZO: which means, false teachers that cause division.

The context of Jude is a stern warning to be on the lookout for false teachers and leaders. Notice in Verse 11 that these false teachers, “have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit…” 

David V. Barrett received a Ph.D. in Sociology of Religion. In his book, "The Fragmentation of a Sect: Schism in the Worldwide Church of God", he points out all splits in WCG to the present various  churches of God could only be caused and were caused by the ministry. On pages 208-209:

"But in a family of churches where top-down authority has always been the norm...members were expected to follow their ministers."

"...it is primarily ministers who have actively left one church to join or to found another, and in many cases they took their members with them."

"...it is a feature of established sects that schism comes only from the divisions among the influential elite within each movement; no other person is sufficiently influential to cause division..."

"Schism must thus be from the ministerial ranks, and in particular from those at the center of the organization; the laity are too receptive and docile (accustomed to obedience) to initiate schisms, and have no opportunity to preach heresy, or to challenge organizational arrangement." 

The irony in all this is that an all powerful ministry responsible for the schisms, created options for the brethren and are thus responsible for diffusing their own power and control. Ministers, being the cause of division, is the only thing (besides the internet) that has given the laity any kind of voice.

Our leaders place an inordinate amount of importance in loyalty and consensus. “Division” and “rebellion” are terms used to keep critical thinking to a minimum. This approach alienates members from each other and inevitably creates the culture of, “pay, pray, stay and obey.” Gerald Weston claimed in a sermon about what makes a church Philadelphian, that it was "right government" and of course that right government was the top-down, one-man-rule in LCG.

False claims that we are the “one true church” further alienates us from our communities. We meet in secret and do very little to reach people in our communities. After paying unbiblical tithes, there is nothing left to help people.

Laodicea has often been said to mean, “the people decide.” This has typically been explained by the churches of God that these are groups of people who refuse to submit to the government of God and are making their own decisions or they are in governments where there is voting or congregational polity. This is certainly how Gerald Weston would interpret it.

But let us look at this once again in terms of authority and Judes’ warning of false teachers who serve themselves. In Philadelphia, Jesus has the Key of David. In places where brotherly love exists with no major criticism, Christ has put His authority in those places. In Laodicea, what if the people making decisions are self-serving ministries in top-down churches? A self-serving, elite ministry would reject Christ’s authority and effectively close the door to the Kingdom for them and those that follow them.

“But woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrits! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.” 

Remember, Jesus said this in Matthew 23:13, right after directing the previous 4 verses to the disciples on not to seek rank among the brethren!

Yet, Christ in His mercy, knocks on the doors to these churches that have rejected His authority in hopes that there will be brethren inside who will wake up and leave the grips of these false teachers whom Jude warns us about.

I Corinthians 7:23, “You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men.”

Romans 14:12, “So then each of us shall give account of himself to God.”

Is the Holy Spirit pouring out gifts in the churches of God? Are their governments set up in a way that forbids the Holy Spirit to work? Does the church reflect love and grace toward all men or is it an aloof and divided people meeting in secret, always wading through "us-and-them" scenarios?

The biggest problem with hierarchical governments is they attract narcissists and psychopaths who "act" their way into positions where they can then exercise oppressive power. Similar types who lack charisma and intelligence fill in the middle ranks as managers. When the charismatic and/or intelligent leader dies or is taken away, the void is filled with squabbling managers. These managers cause division.

Hierarchical pastors will rarely view a strong opposing viewpoint without screaming division and rebellion because he doesn't have to. Managers are small-minded, order-takerers that fear debate, fear being exposed, live in an us verses them world, thrive in hierarchical structures, believe they know all the answers and are willing to seer their own conscience to maintain income and power. To a manager, scholars cause division. To pastor-managers in an unbiblical hierarchy, a laity that studies the Scriptures is dangerous.

Scholars thrive on healthy debate and love fellowshipping, especially with other free-thinkers. They are not insecure about not knowing everything. They thrive in congregational settings where everyone believes each person is sovereign and responsible for their own salvation. Scholars know  authoritarians cause division.

The legacy of WCG and its splinters is division caused by squabbling managers and a support group of lay-members who are happy to have it thus. The scholar is silenced or forced out for rebellion and "causing division."

V

History of Governance in the Church of God

While many churches of God consider WCG as the parent church, the WCG is actually a spin off from another parent church that was called the Church of Christ. Gilbert Cranmer is credited for starting our church in March of 1858. In 1831 at the age of 17, Gilbert was baptized in a Methodist church and started preaching. After 2 years, he quit over the trinity doctrine and joined the Christian Connexion or Christian Church which was made up of loosely affiliated Christians that had abandoned the colonial churches like the Presbyterian, Baptist and Methodist. 

In 1844, he joined the Adventist movement started by William Miller whose prediction of Christ’s return between 1843-1844, spread like wildfire. After the “great disappointment”, Gilbert moved from Michigan to Illinois to escape the ridicule and mocking from his neighbors when Christ did not return.

Sabbath-keeping started being preached by Joseph Bates in the 1840’s and 50’s among the Millerites/Adventists. Gilbert Cranmer began observing the Sabbath in 1852. James and Ellen G. White began raising up Sabbath keeping advent churches at this time and Gilbert Cranmer became associated with them. In 1858, the White’s refused to give Cranmer credentials to preach in the Advent churches because of his tobacco use. By 1860, Gilbert Cranmer raised up 12 congregations made up of mostly Adventists who wished to distance themselves from Ellen G. White’s prophecies and James White’s desire to create a top-down government structure for the church. It is interesting to note here that it was a government issue and prophecy that created the split from SDA and the creation of the Church of Christ. The first structure of our parent church was Congregationalist and strongly opposed Episcopal top-down governance. Over the next 24 years, congregations were raised up and by 1884, they came together under a General Conference. This is when they settled on the name, Church of God.

In Robert Coulter’s book, “The Journey: A History of the Church of God (Seventh Day)”, he says

on p.109:

“It is interesting to note that the Conference was organized as a membership movement that did not require negotiations, concessions, or preconditions among its varied membership in order to organize. The Conference came into existence as a spontaneous action of its membership rather than of its leadership, and it was to serve its membership rather than govern them.”

It was under the oppressive drive of James and Ellen G. White to define doctrine of the church for everyone else and concentrate power and authority unto themselves, that helped ensure a congregational culture and governance of the Church of God and led to publications that had an “open creed” where critical thinkers of the church could get Bible studies published. Any idea that truth could only be introduced into the church from the ministry was utter nonsense. This was the culture that enabled the Church of God to develop its core doctrines during its first 70 years in existence. This period was not plagued with politics, infighting, division and chaos. No, all of that happened under Andrew Duggers’ watch. He was the next “James White” to come along and try to concentrate power unto himself and dictate a new long list of official doctrines. Andrew Dugger managed to split the church in half by 1933. After 16 years, the church merged again but not after membership went from 40,000 all the way down to 10,000 thanks to Andrew Dugger’s “skills in governance.”

It was in the atmosphere of those divided and divisive years that HWA himself railed against Duggers’ oppression and believed as long as he received a paycheck from the Church of God, he would have to preach only what men ordered him to teach. HWA claimed he stopped receiving pay from the Church of God in 1933 and only loosely affiliated because he was not going to be told by men what to preach. But the truth is, and it is in the Church’s records, that he remained a credentialed and paid minister until 1938.

It is ironic but quite possible that some of those 30,000 members who left the Church of God during this time period because of the controls implemented into the church by Dugger, went with HWA because of his stance against top-down governance. HWA clearly railed against one man rule, top down government in his 1939 article, calling it the “image of the beast.”

HWA claimed later he did not know what church government should be and it wasn’t until the 1950’s that it started coming to him. In the GCG booklet on government by RCM in 1993, RCM says it was he and Herman Hoeh that essentially introduced top-down government into the church by a series of articles in the 1950’s. By 1978, HWA had taken on titles to himself like “Apostle” and later, “Elijah” and brought the church so in line with Roman Catholic Church governance that some began questioning this obvious heresy in the church. His delusional concentration of power, in my opinion, is the reason there was no smooth transition after his death and directly contributed to the collapse of ‘his’ church. Just like William Miller, James and Ellen G. White and Andrew Dugger before him, HWA came along to concentrate power, make false predictions in prophecy and the return of Christ (1975), enforce his version of truth, and ultimately cause mass confusion, politics, infighting and chaos.

The turbulent 1930’s in the Church of God produced 3 splinters from the church:

1. C. O. Dodd formed the sacred names movement.

2. Andrew Dugger established a headquarters in Jerusalem to convert Jews who he

believed would be the 144,000 in Revelation.

3. Herbert Armstrong split over the Holy Days and British-Israelism.

Something important to realize is that while HWA claimed to restore 18 truths to the church by direct inspiration from Jesus Christ, the truth is, HWA came into contact with the Church of God in 1927 and began reading all the materials that church produced in its publications that had that “open creed.” He said when he came in contact with “Sardis”, they had very little truth. But the truth is, the focus and culture of the Church of God was to avoid “officiating” doctrines and beliefs held by the members. What that means is even though there was not a webpage with a laundry list of teachings one must agree to in order to fellowship or be initiated into a corporate body, almost every single one of HWA’s “divinely” restored truths were written about, published and discussed in the church; some of those ideas for many years. HWA did not leave because no one would believe his teachings on British-Israelism and the Holy Days. He left because the General Conference would not make them official doctrines as something everyone had to believe.

[John Keizs, who was a close friend and fellow minister of HWA from 1935-1945, says HWA had a persecution-complex and the church was glad to see him go as he was difficult to work with. Keizs also stated that HWA told him he planned to start a college where he could train men to teach only what HWA told them to teach.]

There were people in the church that believed those two doctrines and observed annual Holy Days. HWA learned it there! HWA continued sharing a feast site with John Keizs until 1945. And there are still people in the Church of God (Seventh Day) and the Seventh Day Adventist Church that believe and observe the annual Holy Days to this day.

As a prelude and summary statement about his research, Robert Coulter says this on p.18:

“The history contained in The Journey, from the Church’s founding to the present, has not always been uplifting. Sometimes it reflects the triumph of the Christian spirit and faith. At other times it reflects the selfishness of human nature. But since the church, as a part of the  body of Christ, is composed of frail human beings, the modern church, like the imperfect church of the first century, reflects both the goodness of God and the depravity of the human spirit and the need for Jesus Christ to recreate it after His image!”

Herbert W. Armstrong died 33 years ago. The churches of God birthed from the Worldwide Church of God are but a shell of a former work and zeal. It’s time to look in that mirror and reflect on the truth of our roots and our history.

Something we have been hearing over and over for years now is, “If God has top-down government He plans to implement on earth during the millennial reign of Jesus Christ, why would He NOT want us to practice that government in the church right now?” I have three reasons why NOT:

1. We are not God. We are men and incapable of ruling justly over others. The proof of this is human history and the record of abuse in all top-down structures including the ones implemented in churches.

2. Only the ministry gets to “practice” this government now. The only thing the rest of us get to practice is I Peter 2:18-21 and quite frankly, I get to practice that enough in the world.

3. The New Testament does not clearly endorse any form of government and that is why we see evidence of multiple structures utilized in church history. [I have come to believe through further study that the New Testament does endorse Congregational Polity]

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. When you compare the Church of God (Seventh Day) early days of congregational polity and open creed, encouraging all brethren to study to show themselves approved to the years they dealt with James White and Andrew Dugger trying to concentrate power unto themselves and dictating doctrine; which approach bore fruits of growth and peace and brotherly love and which bred politics, division and strife?

The so-called "Sardis era" of the Church (Church of God: Seventh Day) has 400,000 members with congregational governance. The WCG legacy is an aftermath of roughly 30,000 people divided by a divisive ministry drunk with top down power and dependency on tithe payers for their livelihoods.

Colossians 2:8, “Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.”

“philosophy” is PHILOSOPHIA: “not philosophy in general but the teaching of a syncretistic religious group that claims special insight into God, Christ, astral powers, creation, that imposes a set of rules on its members and that bases the authority of its message on its age or esoteric (secret) nature.” –p.1272, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament

Philosophia is what destroyed families because of an ungodly understanding of divorce and remarriage in WCG. Philosophia is what ruined thousands of brethren’s financial lives as they believed Christ was returning in 1975 in WCG. Philosophia is what enabled a whoremonger to remain the spokesman (GTA) of the WCG through the 1970’s because when he was initially removed, the income dropped 30% so he was rushed back. Philosophia is why one-man-rule, top-down government was used in WCG to maintain control and keep people focused on HWA as their mediator to Christ. Philosophia is what produced the “true church” doctrine that tied people’s salvation to membership in WCG and put people to sleep.

In Robert Coulter’s concluding statements in his book, “The Journey: A History of the Church of God (Seventh Day)” he points out that, “all churches have skeletons in their proverbial closets if their historians choose to reveal them.” 

As long as LCG and all other splinters from WCG refuse to shine the light of truth on church history, an unforgiving internet will continue to do so for them. Unacknowledged ecclesiastical sins will never be forgiven. You will go down as the church who had a name for being alive (The Living Church of God) but continued only as the walking dead, arms outstretched, falling forward from the white-washed sepulcher of the Worldwide Church of God.

HWA was a failed business man that turned his marketing skills to selling religion for gain. HWA taught many truths that he learned in COG7D and pawned them off as having received them directly from Christ. HWA was a gnostic who pushed his own “philosophia” without grace and without love; two things unconverted men can never understand.

In Philippians 1:15-18, Paul says that there are those who preach Christ out of envy, strife and selfish ambition, while others, out of love. Paul asks what we are to make of this. Should we give up? Discard everything what was learned as lies? No. Paul says, whether in pretense or truth, Christ is preached. And I want to make that clear. I did not write this to take away from what Jesus has done for me by bringing me into contact with the churches of God. Despite the messengers, I learned many truths of the Bible. I am not advocating that there is a “best place to be." There is only the best place for you where Christ wants to put you in your journey. The most important thing is to never turn off the most important aspect of your humanity that is created in the very image of God. John tells us that the name of our God is “Rational Thought.” Please, don’t ever trade that in for a quick fix into the Kingdom of heaven promised by teachers. Work out your own salvation in fear and trembling.

V

We Surround Them