February 4, 2011

". . . I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last," and, "What you see, write in a book and send it to the Seven Churches which are in Asia: to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamos, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea" (Revelation 1:11).

The History of God's One and Only True Church

By Alton (Don) B. Billingsley

Continued from 4-13-2010, 4-23-2010; 4-30-2010; 5-7-2010; 5-17-2010; 5-21-2010; 5-28-2010; 6-11-2010; 6-18-2010- 6-25-2010; 7-2-2010; 7-16-2010; 7-23-2010; 7-30-2010; 8-6-2010; 10-15-2010; 11-12-2010; 11-26-2010; 12-3-2010-12-17-2010;1-21-2011;1-28-2011

Regarding the establishment of His Church, Jesus Christ said to the apostle Peter and the rest of His disciples:

". . . On this ROCK (Greek: Masculine, Petros, Feminine, Petra, meaning Jesus Christ Himself, Deuteronomy 32:3-4; I Corinthians 10:4) I will BUILD My Church, and the gates of Hades (graves, I Corinthians 15:54-55) shall NOT prevail against it." (Matthew 16:18).

The Church in Philadelphia - The Church of Brotherly Love - began in October 1933 (with 19 members) and is ongoing -

 “And to the angel of the Church in Philadelphia write, "These things says He who is holy, He who is true, He who has the key of David, He who opens, and no one can shut, and shuts and no one opens: I know your works.  See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it; for you have a little strength have kept My word, and have not denied My name. 

Indeed I will make those of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews, and are not, but lie- indeed I will make them come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you. 

Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trail which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth. 

Behold, I am coming quickly!  Hold fast which you have, that no one may take your crown.  He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God and he shall go out no more. 

I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God.  And I will write on him My new name. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the Churches (Revelation 3:7-13).

Continued History of the Philadelphia Era of God's True Church-

This writing will continue to focus on the history of the Philadelphia Church Era from the death of God's apostle January 16, 1986, to the present date of January 1, 2011, focusing on the evolving transition from that time to what came to be the Church of God, Faithful Flock in 2002.

An Overview

The evolving transition of the faithful few members began after our departure from the parent Church that had now become totally corrupted by the apostate leadership (Daniel 12:7).

It took about 14 years before circumstances directed by Jesus Christ brought about the Church of God Faithful Flock into a place whereby He could use this small handful of members to once again open the door to His Gospel and the Ezekiel warning message going forth to this world that Christ had closed at the time of the death of Mr. Armstrong.

The simple fact is Jesus Christ was not going to use an apostate pastor general to continue with His Work so He closed the door (Revelation 3:7).

It should be understood that Jesus Christ would only use a leader of a corporate Church of God who would prove to be faithful to Him in fullness of truth and in name.

This required time to see if any evangelist would stand up for the fullness of the doctrinal teachings and rulings Jesus Christ used His late apostle to restore within His Church regardless of the deceptive pressure brought about by Satan the devil through his human instruments.

Not one did.

My Personal History-

Up to almost that time in 1994, I had remained as pastor of the local Churches in Stockton/Modesto, California without being dealt with by the leadership at headquarters of the Worldwide Church of God; though I had not preached any of the changes.

FIRST STEP

The First Step of the Transition

The second Sabbath, April 8, 1995: We made the decision to begin our own Church service, with the name Church of God, Modesto, in Modesto, California. The only hall we could find for services was located in Escalon, California.

There were 125 members in attendance for that Sabbath service. My sermon: “Faithfulness to God’s Covenant”.

The name Escalon is a Spanish name and means: a stairway, rung, or beginning step. This is both interesting and also very meaningful for this would be the first or beginning of steps that would lead to others before we would come to where we are now, and where we hope to be later.

Modesto is another interesting name and is also very meaningful for its meaning fits us real well. It means: little or small.

SECOND STEP

After departing from the Worldwide Church of God we chose to go with the United Church of God thinking they would pick up where we left off in 1986 after the death of Mr. Armstrong.

It did not happen. We left them.

THIRD STEP

We chose to go with Mr. David Hulme, believing, from what he had said to us in a meeting with the elders that he was in accord with the teachings of Mr. Armstrong.

Continuing from last week—

THIRD STEP, April 10, 1998

We came to be part of the Church of God, An International Association, with David Hulme, evangelist, as the head of it.

To give them a kick-start we ministers agreed to not being paid until June 1, 1998.

The Passover Service, April 10, 1998 (after dusk)

Immediately I found there was a problem with the Passover regarding the ceremony that was sent to us to be used by John Anderson, who was being used by Mr. Hulme to interact with the ministry regarding whatever he wanted to pass on to us.

After viewing the ceremony and recognizing it as the same one changed by Mr. Tkach, I immediately called Mr. Hulme and voiced my protest. He said he would talk to John Anderson about it – indicating he was unaware of it, and would take care of it.

Nothing came to us regarding a change with the ceremony.

I used the same one that Mr. Armstrong had put together. After the Passover I again talked to Mr. Hulme about it. All he said was that he had touched on Physical Sin during the service he conducted.

December 29, 1998 - In our first ministerial conference Mr. Hulme spoke about Born Again not really saying anything for or against it, while keeping his eyes primarily on me. He summed up his talk on the subject by saying he did not want anyone to preach on it until he did.

He never did while I was with him..

Mr. Hulme also said in that conference that he believed that what God said about Noah being righteous in his generations did not pertain to pure in stock/ ancestry in marriage – meaning marrying people of your own race. This was is stark contrast to what Mr. Armstrong taught.

Without directly saying so this meant he had no problem with intermarriage. And this proved to be correct for after I left him one of his ministers in the Bay area married a white man to a black woman.

Another time he mentioned in a sermon that-- “If Mr. Armstrong were alive he would re-write the Mystery of the Ages for that was the way he was.” There is no way Mr. Armstrong would change any of those doctrinal teachings.

Troubles had begun building in my mind from almost the very beginning about the direction Mr. Hulme was going by what he would say here and there that was not in alignment with the teachings of Mr. Armstrong.

I voiced some of them in my sermons.

One woman passed on her thoughts about what I was saying in those sermons to her husband’s son-in-law who was also a minister with Mr. Hulme. He passed this on to Mr. Hulme.

As the result Mr. Hulme had John Anderson to call and say he wanted to talk to me in Pasadena.

February 22, 2000 – I boarded a flight to Pasadena and was picked up at the airport in Burbank by his secretary.

Almost immediately Mr. Hulme and I sat down together. Right away he raised his voice in anger saying he was told that I did not trust him and there was going to be a split in his church (trying to intimidate me – a man in his 50s yelling at me – a man of my age at 74 – which was contrary to Scripture (I Timothy 5:1; I Peter 5:5).

It did not work. I replied calmly that at least Stephen had a chance to defend himself before they stoned him to death. He looked surprised at my response and calmed down. I then quoted God who said we are not to trust any man. As to the split, I said that I did not remember making that statement.

I also pulled out from my briefcase the WWN in which was listed the 18 doctrines that was published in 1986 and showed it to him. He said that just means teachings.

He also told me that Mr. Armstrong changed before he died. I replied, “No, he didn’t David.” He said nothing further. He became very cordial and took me out to lunch. I returned home later that day.

I did not leave him then but it was building to that point.

Sunday, May 7, 2000 I attended a ministerial conference in Pasadena at the request of Mr. Hulme. It ended May 9, 2000. During my time there I remained by myself through lunch, the breaks between sessions, and also dinners. I was not happy.

In one of his sessions during that conference he stated that Matthew 24:4-5 did not mean what we had been taught – it applied to the world’s leaders – not ministers.

John Anderson spoke up and said this destroys the teaching of it being connected to the white horse in Revelation 6.

This did not change his mind or his teaching on the subject.

August 20, 2000 – During this week David Hulme and I talked on the phone for about an hour. During our conversation I told him numerous areas in which he was wrong in his teachings. He warned me that I was on dangerous ground but it did not stop me.

I was not angry but I was very passionate in what I said to him.

He should have realized that I meant what I had said to him during our first conference when I had told him one on one during a break between sessions that I was very passionate about what I believed. He said he knew it. However I think he thought with his superior intelligence he could intimidate me; but he couldn’t.

Admittedly, I did stay with him longer than I should have.

August 26, 2000 -- Mr. Hulme spoke in the Oakland/San Francisco Church. His new wife told a member from the Fresno Church who was there for the service that he would be speaking in the Modesto Church the following Sabbath. He had not told me about it.

Knowing I was going to resign, we began looking around that week for a place to observe the Feast of Tabernacles.

September 2, 2000 -- As expected, Mr. Hulme and his wife were in Modesto for this Sabbath. He and I met in a private room to talk before services began. Knowing I was upset about his stand on our not speaking on prophecy, he told me he did not believe it was relevant at this time.

This was the very same thing that Mr. Tkach had told us; he did not want us preaching on prophecy.

While checking the internet about him, I came to understand from his writings that he had embraced the trinity teaching, believed we are born again, etc.

Since I left him he wrote a booklet trying to prove there is no such thing as physical sin.

In actuality Mr. Hulme had been a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde all along. In other words, he is a totally unconverted man caught up in his own intellectual vanity seeking his own recognition. I loved the man, but could not agree with him.

September 9, 2000 – I gave the sermon in Modesto that Sabbath and informed the members I was resigning from Mr. Hulme’s Church and why.

After the services I e-mailed my prepared resignation to Mr. Hulme. Later in the day I had his right-hand man to call and plead with me not to resign. He said he was crying and begging me not to do it.

I told him Mr. Hulme was in disagreement with Mr. Armstrong. He replied by saying, “Look Don, Mr. Armstrong was wrong in a lot of things.” This statement reflected the beliefs of Mr. Hulme.

In a telephone conversation with Mr. Meredith about that same time, he told me that Mr. Hulme was not in agreement with Mr. Armstrong before he died.

Learning the Hard Way

Some things we often learn later that had we known at the time would have spared us and others from needless problems. It seems we often have to learn the hard way – often with sorrow and tears for all of us.

Once again we lost some members who chose to remain with Mr. Hulme.

To be continued

Your servant and friend in the Lord Jesus Christ,

Don Billingsley

"Entire contents copyrighted.  The Church Of God.  All Rights Reserved.  The copyright subsisting in material quoted in this publication and trademarks appearing in this publication belong to the respective owners thereof and no claim of ownership therein is made by The Church of God."

http://bodyofchristonline.us/     http://cog-ff.com     http://www.ezekielwatchman.org/

Brought to you by the Church of God Faithful Flock