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Wounded Birds
by M. John Allen
Wow, has this been some week!
The WCG is in the headlines again, and as a result I had to get out a special
edition of The Restoration Times. If you haven’t seen it yet, I
suggest you give it a look. It’s filled with information that might not be
pleasant, but which we all need to face sooner or later, so it might as well
be sooner.
As part of my net surfing for
research on the articles in this special edition, I went to a website that
was written by a former church member. I could tell that this person had been
deeply wounded by the shenanigans going on in Pasadena.
Let’s face reality
right here and now. And once we have faced reality,
we can come to an understanding of what God wants us to learn from this. As I
have said before, we must not throw the proverbial baby out without he
bathwater, but understand God’s lessons and learn from this. Burying our
collective heads in the sand and ignoring reality
won’t do this. Neither will we have the opportunity to ignore the facts much
longer, as God is now beginning a cleansing fire that will sweep through His
Church and clean it out once and for all. Afterwards will be the restoration,
and the installation of God’s government in His Church right now. But this
cleansing will not be easy. It will be difficult and painful, but we must,
brethren, face reality so that we can move on. We will become stronger for
all of this, and will be able to do the greatest work for God in all of
history. If you want to be there, though, you will have to learn what God is
teaching us right now.
So, let’s face the facts. Fact
number one is that the Worldwide Church of God is and was a cult. Now that is
exactly the accusation that detractors have made for years, and we must face
the reality of the situation.
We were and are a cult by this
world’s definitions and standards. The world defines a cult as any
organization with a central, authoritarian figure who exercises great control
over people. They also say that cults brainwash people. Cults are also
exclusivist.
I was very thankful to the tapes
of Mr. Ronald dart over the years, as he helped me to face the reality
of the situation I had come out of through his tapes. Brethren,
the Worldwide Church was an exclusivist cult. It taught that even if it wasn’t
the only true church, it was the best, and it only admitted to one other as a
possible true church, the Church
of God (Seventh Day). All splinter groups that came out of
Worldwide were heretical, and cut off from the body of Christ,
and were therefore no better than the false churches of churchianity.
This was the basic approach.
Now, first of all, let me state
that any church that does not understand that the Sabbath is God’s day of
worship, and many other points, is not part of God’s True Church, but that
still leaves a lot of Sabbath keeping candidates for being part of the Body
of Christ. Many will point to the Holy Days as a dividing factor,
but I am not ready to make the statement that HWA made years ago that the
Sabbath and the Holy Days stand or fall together. To put it bluntly, I feel that
it is possible for someone to be a true Christian
and observe just the Sabbath -- HOWEVER, and this is a BIG QUALIFICATION --
the Holy Days reveal God’s plan of salvation for mankind. Therefore, if God
has seen fit to reveal the Holy Days to your understanding and YOU REFUSE TO
OBSERVE THEM, then you are in open rebellion against God. If this is the case
with you, then I would not want to be you on Judgment Day. I think that says
enough about what I feel on this subject.
So, exclusivity was one of the cult
characteristics of the WCG over the years. However, we need to be very
careful at this point. We should not immediately jump to the conclusion that
if there ARE Christians in other groups, that it is fine for us to join
them. there are also those who have problems with
anyone who claims that God has made them an Apostle, or that they are going
to do the “big work,” etc. This kind of thinking crosses the line. While we
should not be exclusivist, it is perfectly fine to RECOGNIZE THAT GOD HAS
ORDAINED AN END TIME APOSTLE AND THAT THE WORK DONE THROUGH THAT APOSTLE IS
HIS FOCUS TODAY! That is a matter of faith, not exclusivism,
and just because others in the past may have went
overboard in the exclusivist direction does not automatically mean that we
should jump to the other extreme. Rather, we need to see God’s mind on this
subject and understand what a privilege it really
is to understand that God has indeed raised up an end time apostle who while
soon conduct the biggest work in history. That is a matter of faith and
spiritual discernment, and not a matter of being part of a cult, at least by
God’s standards.
I would like to quickly add,
though, that just because God may have blessed YOU to see where He is mainly
working at this moment in history DOES NOT give you license to look down on
or condemn others to whom God has not revealed these facts and
understandings. No, we need to pray that God will begin to open the minds of
thousands of His people to see where He is now working -- but rather than
condemn others for not understanding, we must entreat God that He will open
their minds so that they may join the most exciting work in history. I hope
you see the difference in attitude here, brethren, and that you take it to
heart. This is the attitude of love and a Godly mind.
Another reason the world
considered us a cult was that we did not believe in the trinity doctrine. We
also believed in adult water baptism, not eating unclean meats, our future as
God beings, and many other things. Well, I will have to confess that if the
world considered us a cult for believing these BIBLICAL doctrines, then so be
it. If any new people are reading this message, our library
section has a wealth of information on these topics and I strongly encourage
you to browse and learn.
So, for some of the right
reasons and for some of the wrong reasons, the world considered us a cult.
When it was for a Bible truth, we should be proud, and when it was for
something like pride or vanity, we should correct ourselves.
But because the world considered
us a cult, many of us were persecuted in many different ways. Our children
also got persecuted in the schools. This persecution has now led many people
to feel bitter about their past.
The reasoning seems to be that
if Mr. Armstrong ever did anything we think is wrong in his personal life,
then he must be a fraud. If he ever made a statement that later proved not
true, he was a fraud, and so on. The same standards were often applied to the
local pastor.
Well, I hate to tell you this,
but I will let you in on a little secret: we are ALL HUMAN and we ALL MAKE
MISTAKES! Some of us have an easier time of it and some of us have a harder
time of it, but the bottom line is that we are all human. Putting the
ministry on some kind of pedestal is rank IDOLATRY and HYPOCRISY! Ministers
are human, Mr. Armstrong was human, and I am human. We all sin. The only
human who never sinned was Christ. Anything less than that is worthless, because we
cannot get into the Kingdom by our own works and our own efforts.
We should NEVER look to the
human servants of God -- we must ALWAYS look to Christ
and FOLLOW HIM AND HIS WORD, THE BIBLE. Anything else is wrong. Period.
Now the hirelings and hypocrites
often try to encourage this beatific view of a perfect ministry that can do
no wrong. Well, brethren, that is a FALSE IMAGE, and like all false images
and idols, GOD IS OBLIGATED TO BRING IT DOWN!
So, looking back at this page,
now, it is easy to see that the writers of the articles on this site had had
a certain IMAGE of the church and it’s leaders. This
image, though, was NOT CORRECT, but flawed. It also became an IDOL. Like all
idols, God smashed these idols in these people’s minds, and then they started
to accuse some of God’s servants of doing something wrong.
Of source, ministers HAVE
SINNED, and in almost every way imaginable. Yet, some people are shocked and
dismayed. Why is this? All it is is a reaffirmation
of the person’s humanity and the weakness of the flesh that that infers.
Some of the greatest men in the
Bible were also at times great sinners. David is a prime example. He was both a
murderer and an adulterer! Yet, he repented and God called him “a man after
My own heart.”
As Saul, the Apostle Paul
persecuted and killed Christians. IN other words, before his conversion, HE WAS A
MASS MURDERER of God’s people!
I could go on and on and recite
the sins of the great men and women of the Bible. Rahab,
for instance, was a PROSTITUTE, and yet God saw fit to save her! And remember
the instance when Christ came upon the woman, caught in the act of adultery? the Pharisees and hypocrites of her day were ready to
stone her. But Christ perceived that this woman was really
repentant, so He stopped down, wrote something in the sand, and said “He that
is without sin cast the first stone.” We do not know exactly what it was that
Christ wrote, but whatever it was, it must have struck a
respondent chord with even these hard hearted Pharisees. Maybe it was even a
catalogue of each of their sins. We will never know. But as each one looked
at what was written, they turned away and left, finally leaving Christ
and the woman alone. Christ then turned to her and asked her where her accusers
were. She said that they had all left. Christ
then said that He forgave her, and told her to sin no more. [Jn. 8:3-11]
Do we in God’s Church REALLY
understand what this means -- I mean REALLY? Is this real
to us, or just some nice little story we read every now and then?
One of the reasons we have
problems is because we don’t really understand what God is doing. His Law is very
important. I don’t want to diminish that, but no matter how hard we try, we
simply CANNOT EARN OUR SALVATION THROUGH GOOD WORKS. This does NOT, of course,
give us a LICENSE to sin, which is what the theology of traditional churchianity would lead you to. But, we need to
understand that God is forgiving and merciful and long-suffering with us, as
He is not willing that any of us should perish. He wants us all to make it
and He is our biggest cheerleader. He is on our side. When we repent, He
forgives. But the operative word here is REPENT!
Once we repent, the blood of Christ
covers our sins, and God REMEMBERS THEM NO MORE. That was how God could
forgive the sins of ALL THE PATRIARCHS. That’s how He can forgive us.
God takes fallible
human instruments and does His work through them, sometimes
even in spite of the person being used. The prime example of this is the
prophet Balaam. The bible tells us very little about Balaam, but what it does
tell us speaks volumes. I could not bring up a better example of a man being
used of God in spite of himself.
Read the story of Balaam in
Numbers 22-25. It’s a long section, but it’s profitable. Notice also Num.
31:16. Read this section very closely, and then we will make a few
observations.
The first observation is that
Balaam was a prophet of God! Even though he was NOT an Israelite, he was
still a prophet of the Eternal, because God came and talked to him when Balaam
asked. Balaam was given dreams and visions from God. I don’t know of ANYONE
in our modern days who has such a close walk with God. I have had a few
visions and dreams, but it is not on this type of regular basis.
Also, notice that GOD would
curse whomever Balaam cursed and bless whomever he blessed! This must indeed
have been a man at one time VERY CLOSE to God! God has inspired me to make
some curses that have come true, but here again this has not been a regular
thing. With Balaam, it appears to have been. it also
refers to Balaam as the “man with his eyes opened,” which in this case means
that he could SEE into the spiritual plain. I am presently researching the
subject of SEEING, and it’s a very interesting study indeed which I hope to
present in a month or so. Suffice it to say that very few people in human
history were able to SEE. Elijah was one. Elisha
was another. And most certainly Jesus Christ
could SEE, but very few other men throughout history have been able to SEE.
Balaam was one of these rare individuals! [It should also be noted that there
are those who learn how to SEE from Satan, and this is not what I am talking
about here, because I order to REALLY SEE properly, it must be through God;
however, Satan has taught some of his servants to SEE in a limited sense of
the word. I know this is all mysteries now, but I hope to make this subject
very plain in the near future, God willing. I, by the way, do not yet SEE in
this sense, but I am getting close. I know of no modern people in God’s
church who yet know how to really SEE, but I expect that to change shortly.]
So, Balaam was a very unusual
man indeed. He was a servant of God. He was a prophet, and you have just read
some of his inspired prophecies, and he was one of the even rarer persons in
human history who had learned how to SEE, and for whom God had opened their
eyes.
Yet, this prophet became flawed
over time. He got off of God’s track at some point, and started using the
power God had given him as a money making enterprise! He sank to the same
level as a fortune teller. He told people’s fortunes for money, and also
issued blessings and cursing. I am sure it was a real
good cash business, because people seemed to know about him far and wide.
Now it seems that God allowed
this to go on for some time. God did not take away Balaam’s power because he
misused it. Instead, He let him continue. This shows us that God is not quick
to withdraw from one of His servants even in the face of mounting sins.
At the beginning of this
passage, when Balak first sent his princes, Balaam
went to seek God’s advice. God told him not to go. I am sure that Balak had offered a HUGE FEE for this curse. Balaam
WANTED TO DO IT, yet he didn’t because he was smart enough to know that he
could not directly contradict a direct command of God. but
Balaam still wanted the money and lusted after it, which was why he sought
God again when more princes came. He wasn’t satisfied without he first answer, and though that maybe he could change
God’s mind. So God reluctantly allowed him to go, but strictly warned him not
to say any more than He allowed.
Then we have the incident with he donkey. God was apparently very upset with Balaam for
his money lust. It was straining their relationship. It strained it so much
that God had to talk to this man through his donkey! But still, despite
several tries, Balaam still had to speak as God told him.
But that apparently did not stop
Balaam from cooing up with a scheme to make Israel sin and thereby incur God’s wrath, so he told Balak to send his women in among the Israelites to tempt
the men and get the men to worship Baal. This scheme worked, and 24,000
Israelites were slain before Phineas did the right
thing and stopped the plague. Balaam’s plan to circumvent God’s wishes almost
worked.
We don’t know if God quit
talking to Balaam after this, and stripped him of his power. But this is an
example of just how flawed a servant of God can become and still be His
servant.
By no stretch of the imagination
can we eve begin to understand how serious this matter was. But Balaam had a
very special privilege and a calling and he squandered it on money lust. This
should be a lesson to all of us, because this same problem has occurred again
and again in human history. I also would like to say that we have seen modern
examples of this in spades. We now have a whole church filled with hirelings,
who, just like Balaam, have made money and financial security their main goal
in life rather than making God’s Work and His Truth the focus of their lives.
Just like Balaam, they are turned away backward, and are now about to be cut
off!
But, let me point out that, just
as in the case of Balaam, when someone speaks GOD’S PRECIOUS TRUTH, they are
at that time His servants. So, even through their personal lives may be a
wreck, they can still do God’s Work as long as they are willing and the sins
haven’t become too severe. But God’s judgment as to what is too severe is
often more lenient and merciful than us humans would be.
So, just because there are sins
in a servant’s personal life, that is no reason to ignore the message. So
people can dig up dirt about Herbert Armstrong and others until it is a mile
high -- yet when what they say is Biblical, we must listen.
But now, the WCG leadership has went too far. They have went into
outright heresy. The hirelings have also refused to preach a Gospel message
to the world, which is God’s number one emergency top priority at this
moment. So that is why He is going to move in and remove these frauds from
power very shortly.
We must, then, keep our minds
focused on the Work of God, and not be distracted by mere mortal men.
However, we must support those who are preaching the Gospel, and we should
not squander money on those who are in the Work only for personal gain.
Time will show just who is going
to restore God’s Work to God’s track. Now is not the time to whine and
complain and wallow in America’s favorite pastime -- victimhood.
Now is not the time to be bitter, but to bind up the wounds. A new day is
dawning, and there is a lot of work to do. We should get about our Father’s
business now.
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