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2) It is only in the last three days that it has come to my
attention that certain men, and even possibly a couple of
evangelists at Headquarters, are still being troubled over the
"Divorce and Remarriage" question, which we came to call the "D &
R" problem. I had been led to believe that issue had been settled,
satisfactorily to all.
Here are the true FACTS relative to this issue. In the past
four years or so there has been a tendency to DOUBT -- to begin to
"question" this and that doctrine -- to cause CONFUSION, and
promote DIVISION in God's Church. I want to GET TO, RE-EXAMINE
when necessary, any doctrine where questions are valid, but there
is going to have to be a stop to this type of "doubt spreading"
that can divide God's people. There has been some TOTALLY
UNWARRANTED criticism, and even misrepresentation, whether intended
or not, in regard to DOCTRINES. God's Church has God's TRUTH -- and
way and by far more Scriptural truth than the Church of God we came
to identify (Revelation 3:1-5) as Sardis -- and simply no
comparison with the churches of THIS world. We are the ONLY Church
I know that has constantly RE-EXAMINED, and researched, and
corrected any error when found. We are the ONLY Church I know that
has accepted NEW truth when discovered. That is one of the PROOFS
that this IS God's true Church, and when any of us imply just the
opposite, we are serving Satan and injuring the Church of the
living GOD!
There have been FALSE accusations that doctrinal research
is being neglected. This sort of thing is HARMING THE WORK!
Let me give you the record. It was some two years or more
ago that the issue was raised regarding the "Hebrew names" for God
and for Jesus and for Christ. I was told an outside minister was
taking our members by scores and hundreds on that issue. I myself
got into it immediately. I had been familiar with that heresy since
the early days when our headquarters was still in Oregon. It took
time, and it took more time after my manuscripts were written to
get it printed, but it came out in the GOOD NEWS. I have heard no
more "bad news" in regard to that issue and assume we settled that
"doctrine."
Then the "D & R" question came to the front -- healing --
others. More immediately urgent, however, were technical questions
on tithing, inviting people to church, etc. In November, 1972, I
began calling meetings of evangelists to discuss and settle as many
of these questions as possible. We did settle those last-named by
the time of the last Ministers' Conference, January 1973. Then came
the work on the "D & R" question. Prior to the 1973 Ministers'
Conference, it was announced that a team was being appointed at
Headquarters to re-examine, and thoroughly research every phase of
the question. The former booklet had been withdrawn from
circulation. I wanted the views, the careful research of our best
technical biblical scholars and researchers. That is ONE of the
contributions of Ambassador College to God's Work -- it has trained
the finest men in this field. I did not personally select
this research team but they were put to work. Mr. Leroy Neff was
co-ordinator. I asked him for the papers contributed as a result
of the various studies. With these, carefully studying them, and