The Scattered “church” of God

Note: This is a digest of a study-paper originally entitled “Ezekiel Thirty-Four.” I believe the name change to “The Scattered ‘church’ of God” is appropriate.

Ezekiel 34:6 “My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill: yes, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them.”

Those of us who can remember the Worldwide Church of God during the early 1970’s will remember the depth and strength, the joy and fellowship, which existed in the “church.” Each year the membership and the scope of the work showed a steady and impressive growth. There was a belief throughout the congregation that the work being done by the Church was a duty given to us by the Almighty God -- and as His children, begotten by His Spirit, we gloried in the part we were allowed to play.

More than thirty years later, what we find is a sickly sham of that former glory. Several years ago I came to understand that the Worldwide Church had been shattered and scattered into more than three hundred different and differing sects. But how could such a thing be possible?

Perhaps even more disturbing is the realization that what survives bearing the name of the Worldwide Church of God today bears little or no resemblance to the organization that was founded by the late Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong.

Do you remember how we hated it when outsiders called our Church a sect? Those of you who believe that you have “continued in the faith” by following a group, or a minister, or a particular set of beliefs, if the roots of your group were formed in the original Worldwide Church then yours is by definition a sect. The New Lexington Webster’s Dictionary reads under “SECT”: a body of people, sharing religious, philosophical, or political opinions, who have broken away from a larger body, (often used as a term of disapproval).

Perhaps you are even more offended by my referring to that Worldwide Church as “our” Church or by referring to the group you now belong to as “your” group. Make no mistake: Jesus founded the “church” of God! These others: the Worldwide Church of God; the Church of God, International; the Intercontinental Church of God; the Living Church of God; the Philadelphia Church of God; the United Church of God; or the many, many other so-called Churches of God, regardless of the secular names which the laws of society have forced them to adopt -- are organizations of men!

One takes the name of Worldwide while another takes International or Intercontinental, yet another takes the name Philadelphia while another takes The Living. On and on and on they go, the names of each group set apart and ordained by the selfishness and arrogance of these self-proclaimed shepherds of God’s sheep. Rightly did the apostle ask the question: “Is Christ divided?”

Is it possible that each of these groups believe they and they alone are the final remnant of the “true church”? If so, then must each of the other groups be something other than “the church”; or “the people”; or “the children”; or even “the ministers” of God? If on the other hand they still have some attachment to each another, however loose that attachment may be, the question must be asked: “Why have our ministers chosen to separate themselves one from the other and in so doing have scattered the children of God?”

In the days of the strength of the Worldwide Church we believed we were the “true church” of God. In this we were no different from any other group within the definition of professing Christianity. But there was a difference! We had been blessed with an understanding of God, of His creation, and of His purpose that was unprecedented in the history of mankind.

The individual genesis of that understanding is what I remember and look back on as “my first love!” It seemed as if the almost daily revealing of God’s mysteries was somehow magical. Each of us, in varying degrees, must remember the joy and excitement of that first love. “But blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears for they hear. For verily I say unto you that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see these things which you see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which you hear and have not heard them.” Surely that scripture applied more to us than it had to any other group since the creation of mankind; and yet, consider what happened to that Church!

Now I ask you: when the Worldwide Church was torn apart was God’s “church” destroyed? This is the question of a fool! And yet, do any of the more than three hundred remnants not believe that their group is the only one keeping the entirety of the true faith? For if they are willing to believe there are others who know and follow the same truths of God, why do they continue to separate themselves from the others?

Of this one thing I am certain: whether there are three, or thirty, or three hundred of these different and differing off-shoot groups, each of them will have at least one minister, and every minister will believe that he has been chosen by God to be a shepherd over an end-time remnant of His sheep. But why have they separated themselves one from the other? Why do they cause the brethren of the “church” to remain scattered? Why do they continue to practice such confusion -- such self-indulgent foolishness?

I believe now, as I did in the early seventies, that the “church” of God, the “ekklesia,” the “called out ones” of God, made up a major part of the congregation of what was known as the Worldwide Church of God. The Worldwide Church “included” many who had been begotten as children of the Living God -- but the Worldwide Church was not of and by itself the “church” of God!

When an individual is called of God, then with the guidance of the Holy Spirit he or she may or may not be led to true repentance. If an individual “brings forth fruits meet for repentance” a minister will almost certainly baptize that individual into the Church.

Acts 2:38 “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy [Spirit].”

We know it is the miracle of the fusion of God’s Holy Spirit with the human spirit in and of the individual that begets a new creation -- a newly begotten child of God. We know that only those begotten of God will be raised “incorruptible” [or “uncorrupted”] at the return of Christ: then surely “these are the elect,” the true body of Christ, the true “church” of God.

God knows those whom He will choose to beget as His children. (Let those who truly believe they have been so blessed receive this understanding with love and humility, realizing there must be a purpose to His choosing.) Or do you believe that all who profess repentance, all who experience the ceremonies of baptism and the laying on of hands, are automatically begotten as children of our Father?

Would God beget and set aside those whom He could not be reasonably sure would one day become His children? I must believe He would not! There are many former brethren whom I still remember with love and longing; some of them left the Church and have taken up their previous lives -- it is to them I believe we must turn with all of the power that God may give us; “...so much the more, as [we] see the day approaching.”

I should tell you that my own break with the Worldwide Church of God came about when I perceived that “my first love” was being challenged. It is my belief that when the ministers took it upon themselves to be the sole arbiters of the truths of God, the Church as a unified organization was doomed.

When the individual members were discouraged from searching the scriptures to gain a more perfect personal understanding; when they were instead encouraged more and more to “look to the ministry,” they were putting themselves into a position where a man, or group of men, held power over their eternal lives. They knew the scriptures to quote, those men who preached to us “in God’s name”: “…there is a way that seems right unto a man” and “…lean not unto your own understanding”; and yet by leaning unto the understanding of the ministry the flock was led to its own destruction.

When the ministry took away that “first love” and made it a sin punishable by disfellowship for the brethren to question the teachings of the ministry, and to discuss their understanding of the Bible among themselves, the Church as a growing organism was doomed to fail.

Where are they; those that were scattered as the Church was torn apart? There is no doubt that many of them felt betrayed by those in positions of authority over them. The Bible told us that the shepherds would cause great problems for the sheep. We were told that the sheep would be scattered -- but who amongst us could have foreseen what actually did come to pass?

And what about us, we who are the sheep; are we to be found blameless before God? Can we simply heap all our failures on the ministry? How is it possible that such a unified organization could have been torn apart the way it did if we were not at least partly responsible?

Were we then the begotten children of God? Once again, this is the question of a fool. We were, by many undeniable proofs and blessings, the begotten children of God. Though bruised and beaten, torn and scattered, we are still the begotten children of God!

The thirty-fourth chapter of Ezekiel cries out as it never has before a condemnation and a warning to the shepherds of God -- and to His sheep! He tells us that because “none did search or seek after them,” that He Himself “will seek [His] sheep, and will deliver them out of all the places where they have been scattered…” Does this mean that no one but God should even try to find them? God forbid that we should excuse ourselves this way!

Many believe that the Church has an end-time duty to preach the gospel as a hope and a warning to the people of the world. Many Churches are faithfully trying to carry out this work and for those who are, I compliment your efforts and ask God’s blessing for your success; but I must tell you: “The world is not listening!” Tune in some Sunday morning to one of the more popular religious programs; see the size of their congregations; the richness of their productions -- the absolute nonsense of their message! This nonsense is what the people of the world want to hear.

Knowing what must shortly come to pass upon the people of the world depresses me; but I say to you, the time for their redemption shall come. What we need to realize is that now is the time to seek out and find those whom I cannot conceive of as being lost.

For almost thirty years I found myself living far from the righteousness that God demands of us. It was only in the year 1998 that I was finally drawn back to the Bible and a renewed search for understanding. I still find it amazing that my beliefs and my understanding had remained almost exactly as they had been back in the early 1970’s.

What would my destiny have been if Christ had returned while I was still living in total rejection of Him and His promises? What if I had “fallen asleep” while still in a state of total rejection of Him and His promises? There is still hope in the distant future for the people of this world; but my immediate concern is for those who have in this lifetime been begotten of God. If they are truly lost to us, does the Bible teach that there cannot be another beginning for them? They were once strong in the faith; they were once our brothers and sisters in Christ; I cannot conceive of them being lost to us forever!

Make no mistake, through all the years of my separation from “the Church” I had continued to believe, but I had allowed bitterness and resentment of the past to cloud my judgment, my love, my hope, and my faith. There is a terrible loneliness that comes with separation from the brethren. Study is made more difficult without someone to talk to. Sabbaths and annual Holy Days are next to impossible to keep properly without the fellowship of the Church.

Companionship with the world becomes more and more desirable; but for those who feel as I did, the option of once again joining with an organized Church group was totally unacceptable. The depth of what we perceived as a great betrayal makes it very difficult to ever again trust an organization of humans with our eternal lives.

Consider those who might prefer fellowship over loneliness, what awaits them? It does not require a Bible scholar to find scriptural evidence that Church attendance is required of the true Christian. With so many offshoots of the Worldwide Church to choose from, there must even be a flavour for every taste.

There may be some justification for those who follow their understanding and their faith even if that understanding eventually proves to be wrong. Perhaps there is a little less justification for those who simply follow a minister of their choice or a minister who speaks the words that he or she wants to hear. But what about those who have chosen to remain alone (as I have done) because they refuse to accept (or follow) what they perceive to be wrong doctrine?

Since my return to a renewed search for understanding there have been many new truths opened up to me. Are there others like myself who have with great difficulty tried to remain faithful to Our Father and Our God? Can it be that they have also been blessed with a renewed hope, a renewed faith, and an increased understanding?

There was an article published by the Worldwide Church of God in 1959 that contained a very interesting quotation; it read: “Here is a KEY that proves which individuals are in God’s church. It is composed ONLY of those who are GROWING INTO TRUTH as God reveals it. The moment anyone ceases to GROW, but wants to retain only what he (or she) had five or ten years ago, from that moment on the Holy Spirit ceases to live in him.” (Emphasis as quoted in the article).

You should know that I do not totally agree with the entirety of this statement. What I do agree with is that the individual cannot allow himself or herself to become satisfied with their current level of understanding. In this, the individual has a distinct advantage over the organization. The individual has no position or false honour that he or she needs to protect. He truly can dissect even accepted truths in order to prove again their validity without experiencing shame if the truths previously held prove to be wrong.

It is amazing to me that a life still in the womb, not yet certain it will ever become the promised new creation, can retain so much arrogance as to believe that perceived truths once discovered -- must therefore be cast in stone! There is absolutely no scripture that I will not search and search again for understanding. There is no doctrine that I will not tear apart and rebuild again and again in my search for truth. Even the most miniscule truth when proven and proven again, becomes a building block to my faith. Each error of understanding, when corrected, not only strengthens the unashamed workman but brings joy and excitement to the soon-to-be child of God.

Note: This evening begins the first of the seven day annual Feast of Tabernacles. Many of our brethren will be traveling to various festival sites for a week of fellowship, prayer, and rejoicing before God. I hope and pray that all will find this week everything they want it to be and that everyone will be able to return to their homes safely.

Next week I hope to share with you many thoughts and ideas that have become very important to me. I firmly believe we have allowed ourselves to accept an imperfect understanding of many doctrines and I have taken the liberty of addressing this problem in a study-paper entitled “The Unpardonable Sin.” I realize that much of what I have to say will be seen as not only controversial but as sacrilege; nevertheless, I believe I have no choice but to share these thoughts with my brethren.

I have made no secret of the fact that this blogsite is dedicated to those whom I refer to as “the scattered brethren” of the “church” of God. It is to them in particular that I present this five-part series on “The Unpardonable Sin.” I pray it will offer them some hope; and possibly the inspiration to return to their studies, their faith, and the zeal they once had in their desire for the salvation and rewards of our Father and our God.