December 17, 2010

“. . . 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-

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 of My God, the new Jerusalem, wwhich comes down out of heaveen from y 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).

This Present Historical Writing continues with the History of the Philadelphia Era of God’s true Church—

          WORLDWIDE NEWS, SPECIAL EDITION

June 24, 1985
Page 1

Recent History of the Philadelphia Era of the
Worldwide Church of God

By Herbert W. Armstrong

Part Two – continued --

Late in 1971 many of our members became confused over propaganda reaching our people over a "sacred names" teaching. This purported that whenever the names of God or of Jesus are mentioned, they must not be spoken by their names in the English language, but in the Hebrew language.

In other words, we could read and discuss the Bible as translated into the English language in all terms except the names of God or of Jesus Christ. Then we must speak Hebrew.

God's name, they had come to believe, could not be spoken except in the Hebrew language. They overlooked the fact that all original copies of the New Testament were inspired by the same God through Jesus Christ, the Word of God, and inspired by the Holy Spirit in the Greek language. In numerous instances the inspired New Testament, inspired in the Greek language, quoted Old Testament passages containing the names of God. And in every case God through the Holy Spirit used the Greek names for God and the One who became Jesus, and NOT THE HEBREW LANGUAGE.

Certain ones were leaving the Church to join this false movement, being misled into believing God's Church to be in error.

At that time, it was suggested that a special Doctrinal Team be appointed to research the question more technically to verify the real truth. We wanted the teaching and doctrines of the Church to be verified beyond any room for doubts. I appointed A Doctrinal Research Committee to pursue an in-depth research of the subject.

A small few Ambassador graduates who had become ministers in the Church were somewhat scholarly inclined, especially one who had a specific problem. He suffered from an inferiority complex. Because some of our graduates at the time were enrolling in outside universities for higher degrees, a few came to conceive that a "scholar" was in the loftiest position of humanity.

If this inferiority sufferer could feel in his own mind that he was a scholar he would feel elevated above other people and therefore delivered from feelings of inferiority. He began to question some of the established doctrines of the Church of God, such as counting the day of Pentecost, divorce and remarriage, tithing and others.

Soon he was entering into what he considered a scholarly research to Disprove some of the Church's basic teachings. Gradually one or two others, then even more, joined in a self-appointed "scholarly research" to Disprove plain biblical truths.

It became evident that those attending other universities came to consider Ambassador College as inferior and substandard intellectually and academically because of our belief in God. Secularism and the anti-God approach of evolution seemed to them far superior to the revealed knowledge of God.

The first committee I had assigned to research the "sacred names" error did reaffirm the truth on that question beyond doubt. But soon a few would-be scholars had established themselves into a "Doctrinal Team." What started as an honest effort to find and establish real TRUTH in due time turned into a group or "would-be scholars" not appointed by me, seeking to destroy the true doctrines of the Church.

This brought controversy into the Church. These self-professed "scholars," influenced by teaching in universities in which they were enrolling for higher degrees, were becoming more and more liberal. They wanted to skirt as close as possible to the precipice of secularism, falling off the cliff into Satan's world.

These were the years when my commission required that I be absent from Pasadena, and traveling overseas to almost all parts of the world as many as 300 of the 365 days of the year. This liberal group, small at first, came to be in executive positions at Pasadena, surrounding and influencing the one responsible for day-to-day administration at headquarters during my absence.

Much of what they did was carefully kept from me.

Those of higher rank, but subject to the one in day-to-day executive administration at Pasadena, who were steadfastly loyal to the Church and its true teachings, were suppressed or gradually removed from Pasadena and sent "into the field," pastoring single churches in other locations. So much of what was going on in Pasadena was kept from me that I did not realize the direction the Church was actually traveling into controversy, liberalism and either Protestantism or total secularism.

It was then that the matter of obtaining accreditation from the organized accreditation societies of secular education became a problem. The liberals at Pasadena wanted accreditation. They did not want to be accredited as a Bible college, but as a full competing college or university. As such the college would fall under the rules of the secular accrediting society, which would more or less determine policy and curricula.

Finally this effort on the part of the liberals increased the enrollment of the college from the approximate 500 limit that I had set to about 1,400 and going up. It was no longer God's college. I had realized the danger of a student body in excess of 500 students, in residence on campus, and had set that as a definite college policy. But during those years when I was absent from Pasadena headquarters most of the time, changes were being gradually made in college policies as well as Church doctrines.

Jesus Christ had founded this college through me as God's college. I had realized the state into which higher education had drifted into materialism. Moral and spiritual values were being overlooked almost entirely in colleges and universities. I had realized the tremendous responsibility to avoid neglecting this missing dimension in education at the time of founding Ambassador College.

From its founding I had made the slogan of the college, "Recapture True Values." The college started with the highest moral and spiritual values. It was God's college. A high moral and spiritual conduct had been vigorously taught and maintained. There was much teaching against "necking," and any sort of lovemaking among students. "Going steady" toward marriage was forbidden until the end of the first semester of the senior year. Smoking and the use of drugs were positively prohibited.

But as the liberal element gained control of the campus administration during those years of my long absences from Pasadena, the high standard of student conduct was more and more liberalized through lack of discipline or enforcement. The college was coming to be more like other college campuses.

At this juncture let me jump ahead of the sequence of events a bit to say that, after sufficient recovery from my heart failure in August of 1977, I found it necessary in 1978 to close the college at Pasadena completely (the colleges in Bricket Wood, England, and at Big Sandy had then already been closed) and to start Ambassador College in Pasadena all over again with one freshman class only, except for a few in proper attitude and character who were retained to allow them to complete their studies until graduation. Also on Aug. 21, 1981, the campus in Big Sandy was reopened.

But now back to the sequence of events.

I quote now from a memorandum by Leroy Neff, the current treasurer, who was on the first Doctrinal Research Committee and wrote concerning others on the committee. I am quoting this to give an example of the direction some of the liberals on the doctrinal committee were taking.

1. Any marriage where the people are unconverted, or did not fully know what they were getting into, was not a valid marriage.

2. Polygamy was tacitly approved by God in Old Testament times, so multiple marriages or divorces in modern times might just be a form of polygamy by having wives sequentially rather than concurrently.

3. God divorced ancient Israel and then both parties were free to remarry.

4. The ministry should be able to loose marriages that God had joined.

These liberals wanted complete freedom in the Church for divorce and remarriage at will. Other questions raised by the liberals were complete freedom for any type marriage, some more and some less freedom from tithing, doing away with or modifying Church teachings on healing by direct prayer as in James 5:14, complete freedom for women in facial makeup, and even the approval of celebrating birthdays (never approved in the Bible) and even of voting in elections as part of the world.

On the Pasadena campus more and more friction developed between the liberals and those loyal ministers and members who held to the biblical truths God had placed in His Church. It was a sort of cold war of nerves.

To be continued

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