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PASTOR'S REPORT, May 14, 1979
Page 27
As Mr. Rader said earlier, apparently they had totally convinced these
{outsid�/ people that were involved--the receiver, the jud�e, the lawyer,
etc:--because of what I heard several times from Atkinson /the Receiver's
assistant/. At that point in time, I thought, "Oh well, they're just
throwing-these comments out because it's going to have some impact."
For example, he said, "You don't know where we have all our sources
coming from. You don't know the ground swell of public opinion in this
church against Mr. Armstrong and against Mr. Rader. They're providing
all of this input to us, and they're going to surge behind us."
Now this is what, apparently, Ben Chapman and others had convinced them
of. And at that time, I didn't know what he really meant by that. I
thought, "Well, they're just saying this because they're trying to panic
us. They're trying to say, 'Well, you might as well fall apart because
you're done in anyway. '" Now we know they were getting this kind of input
from a few dissenters.
I remember when I was busy one Friday evening at Mr. Helge's office and
it was getting kind of late, toward sundown. I got a call and they said
that the receiver had decided that his staff was going to work right on
through the Sabbath, and they wanted to use our copy machines and they
wanted some help, and so forth.
-·
Well, I was able to get in touch with Mr. McNair and he went in and stood
in the gap there. But they were assuming things because they were getting
reports internally. I mean, there was substance to some of their beliefs.
These were things that I didn't know about, and I guess Mr. Rader or
Mr. Helge didn't know about at that point in time. We didn't know how
many people were involved in this conspiracy. And I'm not sure we yet
know of everyone, necessarily. Maybe there are still others.
But of all of these things they were promulgating as fact, there was
some substance to it, even though there wasn't any substance to it /in
the largest sens�?. They thought there was substance to it. And
we
did
n't know where it was coming from.
But I think through all of this--and it's been a nightmare of gigantic
proportions in many respects--1 think time after time and in dealing
with them and in talking with people that we've had to terminate, let
go, and others who have been salvaged back out of the fire (as Mr. Helge
was mentioning) you know, it all comes down to one basic issue as far as
we're concerned, as far as the Church is concerned: Is GOD in charge and
has He appointed Mr. Armstrong to lead this church?
When you get rid of all of the issues that you can talk about, and all of
the things that tend to confuse; when you get right down to it, its that
basic issue. And I think that every church member and every minister has
to come to the point where they have decided(something we all should have
decided a long time ago) that God is in charge, that God called us, that
God has appointed Mr. Armstrong, and caused all doctrines to flow through
and come from him. I don't know of any other way that God can accomplish
that purpose because He doesn't go around rev,:aling to each one of us,
"Well, this is my doctrine on tithing," or, "This is my doctrine on the
keeping of the Sabbath," "This is my doctrine ...." He doesn't do it that
way. God has never worked that way.