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church in hate and have been fighting us for months directly and in
directly.
God's Church was under attack by the Attorney General of California with
threats of a change in the government of the Church and the removal of
God's apostle whom He called and has worked through these many, many
years. Even God's w�y of life and His laws, as well as His Work, were
ultimately at stake. It actually comes down to your and my commitment
to the continuance of what we stand for.
Faith without works is dead and works without faith is dead too. We
need both. We just want to do it the right way. As Christians we are
to conduct ourselves in an orderly manner. We are not to boo, harrass,
shout or otherwise allow our human nature to cause us to react in a
wrong manner. This, of course, is not to imply that we should never
have emotional content in what we say, do or experience.
Our current crisis began when a court of the state granted a receiver
extensive control over the Church, empowering him to even hire, fire
and interfere in ecclesiastical matters, then later dissolved the ori
ginal, unconstitutional receivership -- stating that it was serving
no valid purpose and that the exorbitant expense of maintaining it was
wrongfully making the Church a victim rather than a beneficiary. Then
when the same court reimposed the receivership with a new receiver but
with the same extraordinary powers over the Church, it should not sur
prise anyone that brethren in the Church would want to do whatever they
could to help. Coming in for a special church service is something we
can do in a free country, on our own property and not in violation of
the United States Constitution. We can stand up for our rights and put
pressure on them to live by their own laws. They have been going against
their own laws by denying our Constitutional rights!
There are many guidelines in Romans 12 and 13: We are to "recompense
to no man evil for evil," "If it be possible...live peaceably with all
men" and "avenge not yourselves..."
God is our protector and it is in Him that our victory ultimately lies,
as Mr. Herbert Armstrong has said many times. But when there is some
thing we can do within God's law we should do it. In this matter all
we are doing is sitting on our own property and showing support for the
Church and God's appointed leadership.
Romans 13:1 says "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers."
But notice carefully that it doesn't say "obey" every detail of what the
higher powers may tell you to do. Be subject to those higher powers,
nevertheless. During Nazi Germany there were laws and programs of the
state that you as a Christian would have had to refuse to do. Perhaps
you in many cases would have quietly, non-violently disobeyed by omission,
being subject to the powers that be and any penalties they might impose.
We are using the law of the land in the present Church/state battle.
The law and the provisions of the law can be used legally to thwart what
an individual officer of the law wants to have us do when it conflicts
with our C onstitutional rights. We are now going through the established
legal processes -- which is our right
ez
law.