10

O, How Are The Mighty Fallen

In late 1994 and early 1995, Joseph Tkach Snr., the WCG’s head, announced radical new doctrinal changes to the church. He denied there is any biblical basis for keeping the Sabbath on the seventh day of the week as scripture clearly commands (Ex 20:8-11). He also declared he was doing away with several other long-standing teachings in the church, viz. annual festivals given to Israel, clean and unclean meat laws, tithing, the understanding of the Godhead, the 7,000-year plan of God for man, etc. This was a bombshell to most members, even though the ministry had tried to ‘soften’ them up for the coming changes for years!

Forty weeks later, Joseph Tkach was dead! That was not mere chance or coincidence. It was part of the judgement of God! (Joseph Tkach’s son, also named Joseph Tkach, took over as leader of the WCG from then on.)

God Urges Me To Write to WCG Friends

Early in 1995, after these drastic doctrinal changes were revealed to the membership, I wrote to former WCG friends. One individual left the church soon after Tkach’s heretical onslaught was revealed. I was working in the garden one day when God spoke to me to write to him. (The way God speaks is not often in an audible voice. More often than not it is in strong thoughts or impulses.)[13]

Wanting to be sure it was God urging me to write to him, I asked God for confirmation. I only told my wife what was on my mind, no one else. That night, God gave my son Richard a dream about this very man. (I willl call him ‘Peter’ – not his real name.)

So, that morning in early 1995 I sat down to write to Peter. What God moved me to tell him was later printed in an article, Worldwide Church of God: O, How Are The ‘Mighty’ Fallen! I will reproduce salient parts of that here. It was to be one of nine articles[14] written in early 1995 to help deliver Worldwiders from their spiritual plight. We sent hundreds of copies of each article reaching as many as we could, but there was virtually no positive response, because of the leadership controls exerted over their minds.

8th February 1995

....I don’t know how familiar you are with the subject of listening to God. It is certainly something we were not taught in the Worldwide Church of God. We have learned much more since being out of the WCG.... One principal way God has communicated to us has been through dreams and visions. Not a week goes by without us receiving a meaningful dream. We have all received them. God is no respecter of persons. The children have received them just as much as Helena and myself. Helena and Richard have also been given various visions.

Of course, as soon as you mention dreams or visions, or God communicating with us, Worldwide members tend to become sceptical, negative and defensive. Such things were always frowned upon in the WCG. If someone had a dream, he was regarded as a ‘nutter’ or having had a communication from the devil. It didn’t seem to be part of the experience of the majority in the church. It never crossed the minds of most that those whom God works through receive dreams as a manifestation of the presence and guidance of the Holy Spirit. These things were prophesied (Joel 2:28,29). They have occurred before, both in the New Testament (Acts 2:17,18) and in the old (Num 12:6; Gen 28:12; 37:5).

The WCG filled us with a sense of spiritual negativism. It encouraged us to be clinically correct about [certain matters of] doctrine – something which is falling by the wayside now, or even being deliberately thrown out of the window! But when it came to moving in the power of the Spirit, being spiritually attuned to God so that we could hear from Him, having the faith to walk in the Spirit, those aspects were ignored.

When the patriarchs walked and talked with God, He was not silent. When the apostles were chosen for their tasks, Jesus spent many hours with them, both in the flesh and later in the Spirit. He is alive and with us today. He talks to all of us, if we have the faith and are prepared to listen to Him.

When Helena and I were thrown out of the WCG, God helped us to overcome the victimisation and abuse that we suffered. He gave us dreams which guided us and gave us direction. We were furious that our names were unjustifiably slandered, our characters assassinated, and that we were falsely accused, but there was nothing humanly we could do about it. The church hierarchy preferred to cover up for the lies and misdemeanours of the false ministers who victimised us, rather than clear our names. Now the church is beginning to pay the price for such compromise.

We were not allowed a defence. The only opportunities we were given to defend ourselves were two meetings in Elstree House with all the ‘top brass’ of the church, in which we were psychologically manipulated to bow down to the leadership of the church. That leadership had covered up lies Xxxxx Xxxxxxxx [a WCG minister] had deliberately told about us to blacken our names and make us look in the wrong. They did not seek truth or equity. They sought the maintenance of control over the minds of members at all costs. They were not willing to investigate ministerial wrong-doing. Instead, they wanted us to approve of the man who had done the wrongs, simply because he was a minister in the church. I walked out of one of the meetings, it was so corrupt!

Helena and I refused to comply with their illicit demands, and so we were o

stracised and lied about further, to make us appear in the wrong to the membership, to prevent members believing the truth we knew. By isolating us, they ‘protected’ the church from learning the truth.

That is the way the church has been run for decades. It is impenetrable from the outside because of the tight psychological control over the minds of members. When we were in it, we couldn’t see the control objectively. Only when we were abused, could we believe that such corrupt practices could occur in the church we had been [mis]led to believe was the ‘one and only true Church of God’.

Later, we discovered there were many others who had been victimised and given rough justice by the church’s leaders. There were also many documented accounts of abuse and corruption by several high ranking church ministers. At first, I could not believe that all the sordid stories of vice and sin were true. Some claimed Herbert W. Armstrong (HWA) had committed incest with his daughter Dorothy over a period of years. Ambassador Report (AR) ran articles about such despicable sins of, not only HWA, but Joseph Tkach too. The list of lies which Tkach has told the church is so long it would fill a brief case!

You probably don’t believe me. Yet, it is true. They are documented in AR and have not been contested in court by the WCG. The church has contested other cases in court – and won. But these have never been countered – because they are true. If you don’t believe me, read the accounts for yourself.

John Trechak is the one who writes AR. [He is now deceased.] He is in contact with many top WCG personnel. He is very careful about his facts, because he knows if he gets things wrong, he could be sued out of existence by the WCG’s legal dept. They are very adept at winning cases of libel against them!

...The issues which mention HWA’s incestuous relationship are AR 14,27,40. It is also described in David Robinson’s book Herbert Armstrong’s Tangled Web, (1980, Publ. by John Hadden, Tulsa, OK).

...You probably think I delight in running down former associates. No, I don’t. But they will get what they deserve. You and most WCG members are hoodwinked, brain-washed and perhaps even mesmerised by the ministry as if they were gods. I was, too, when I was a part of the church. If God hadn’t engineered our dismissal, I would not have been able to see things properly from a balanced realistic perspective. The approach in the church of always honouring, respecting and looking up to them is idolatrous. They are given unchallengeable power and authority, something which is illicit in the New Testament Church. If you read I Corinthians 6:1-5 you will see that the members (‘saints’) had a right which has been denied them by the infidels who rule the WCG. That is all about to change for those whom God is going to lead down new paths.

-209While the WCG is busy watering down and eroding aspects of truth which God used it as an organisation to preserve in the world, we are intent on preserving them, and adding to that truth as God reveals more.... [15]

The Influence of False Ministers

About the same time, I also wrote to a prominent WCG minister. I ‘targeted’ this man perhaps more than all other WCG personnel. My reason for doing so was that I had confidence in him. I thought he was an upstanding, well-meaning servant of God. But my faith in him was totally shattered. After five years of my trying to persuade him to seek reconciliation with us, and to stand up against the heretical onslaught being unleashed within the WCG, he ignored my pleas for justice and truth. He was more interested in feeding his face than protecting the minds of the gullible. Here are excerpts of some of my letters to him:

The WCG hierarchy is very good at negative-labelling members’ responses which don’t meet with your approval. However, when the tables are turned, you are not willing to concede to any personal responsibility on your part. The WCG hierarchy has adopted an arrogant, above-it-all stance that is beyond accountability.

[This person had returned some spiritual materials I had sent him which could have benefitted him.]

You are accountable to God and that is why I wrote, to try to provoke you into a right response. I have fought for four years to see our names cleared of false accusations. I have written countless letters to several of you to have the assassination of our character reversed, all to no avail. I have waited for justice to prevail, and all we have witnessed is your ignoring the cause of the oppressed.

You knew we were innocent and unworthy of the ministerial abuse [names of 2 WCG ministers] imposed on us when we were members over four years ago. Yet you were happy to comply with injustice and oppression of innocent members for the sake of expediency. You were content to draw your wages from an organisation which has lost its way. You were happy to comply with the spiritual ‘pin-down’ your superior(s) illicitly imposed on us. Do you feel no shame? Do you have no remorse? Do you have no conscience?

I am astonished that you are so spiritually blind that you follow the present leadership. The current leaders of the WCG are spiritually corrupt. The evidence is there for you to see. “You will know them by their fruits”. The fruits of Satan’s ministers include arrogance, pride, control, subjugation of true Christians, oppression, deceit, self-seeking, politicking, and compromise, amongst others.

...The evil fruits of current WCG leaders are also showing in the watering down of biblical truth and the adoption of heresies that you know better than to entertain. The handwriting is on the wall for the WCG because it refused to do what was right in the Lord’s sight. Jesus IS Lord! Stop fighting Him. Humble yourself instead.

.... the church has left its first love. It has been beguiled by false ministers in control. Xxxxxxxx and Xxxxxxxx were only two. Xxxxxxxxxx is another, and I could name a list more! Their presence in the church has permitted terrible satanic inroads within, in approach and teaching, and the members cannot see it! They are blind because of the strict but very subtle psychological controls on their minds.

.... Like you, when we were inside the church, we could not see the evils. We believed the lies we were told. If anyone spoke against the church leadership, we believed HE was the one in a ‘bad attitude’. That is the way we were taught to think. Only when we were abused, only when Xxxxxxxx and Xxxxxxxx had Helena and me framed and thrown out of the church on the strength of their lies (without us having access to a proper trial to defend ourselves), only when our characters were assassinated by the ministry without foundation, only then did I begin to see that all was not well with these men who claim to lead us in the name of Jesus Christ.

When I first heard of incest being committed by HWA I would not accept it. I was too loyal to the WCG. I didn’t believe he could have done such a thing. It took me about six months to be capable of believing that it WAS the truth. It is documented. The case against him has been written up for years, and has not been challenged, either privately or publicly. He didn’t dare, because it was known to several people to be true. Had he contested it, he would have been further condemned by the witnesses. He would have lost the church over it.

.... I have spent time writing these things to you in the hope that they will help you. My intent is not to cause mayhem or upset. But before our eyes can be opened we have to be jolted, otherwise we would simply continue sleeping.

If you don’t believe me that the WCG leaders are corrupt, take it to God and ask him to show you. He will speak to you if you are open to listen from Him. I enclose as a small gift a series of articles I wrote on this subject. There is nothing more wonderful than dwelling closely with Him and hearing Him talk to us, giving us the reassurance and direction we need. I hope it helps you hear what He has for you personally and how you can cope in the current crisis. I’m sure you will be very much needed when the ‘bubble’ bursts over here, and there are many disorientated people who will need direction and guidance.

You know you are always welcome in our home if you ever want to visit us. I hope you won’t feel intimidated by my bold and uncompromising approach in certain respects to do with our fight against evil in the church.... (End of excerpts.)

The response to this letter was not what I expected. I had hoped he would turn, but he did not.

I wrote this to another member who left the church soon afterwards:

12th February 1995

.... From your vantage point, you can only see certain things – what you are permitted to see by the leaders. You do not see the demonic controls that are exerted over the minds of members which holds them in by fear and deception. You do not see how such controls hold you and limit your personal and spiritual freedoms.

You do not feel free to visit us, yet you will visit Xxxx Xxxxxxx. Why? Because of church teaching. You follow the erroneous WCG teaching that if an ex-member criticises the church, he is wrong to do so. You follow their policy of disfellowship, regardless of its wrongs. If a member is disfellowshipped by the church hierarchy, that member is to be shunned, and not contacted. He is regarded as spiritual vermin. (Helena and Tonya ‘bumped into’ Xxxx Xxxxx and his wife in the supermarket about two weeks ago. The Xxxxxx ignored them totally – wouldn’t even say ‘Hello’!)

Correct me if that is not the way you think and consequently behave towards us, but I would be surprised if it isn’t, to some degree. When we ‘bumped into’ you at Xxxx Xxxxxxx some time ago, it was evident that you did not feel at ease to stay and talk with us as you would with Xxxx Xxxxxxx. Yet, she fellowships with us, has a meal with us on Friday evenings, comes to our Sabbath meetings, prays with us, worships with us, and is fully supportive of what we are doing for God. Yet, you want no contact with us. Why? Because of your indoctrination by the men who lead the WCG.

I say these things, because I know whereof I speak. I was where you are now. Ten or twelve years ago when ‘dissidents’ were put out of the church for dissenting with church policy or teaching, I followed the party line. I binned their material. I wanted nothing to do with them I believed they had left ‘God’s Church’, so I closed my mind to anything they said. I had accepted the church philosophy that regarded any who voiced contrary opinions to those of the church leaders as unworthy of mental or spiritual consideration. I could not see that I had been gripped by a cultish mode of thinking. I did not perceive the WCG as a cult, but it is. Those who lead it use psychological coercion – albeit very subtle – to exert control over the minds of members. Members do not perceive they are not being led by God, but by men.

You don’t see it either, but you are trapped by them and unable to free yourself. You don’t feel free to visit us, to talk to us and discuss openly the teachings of the church, the behaviour of its members or leaders, or anything relating to the WCG. You give your unswerving loyalty to the WCG, as if it were God’s one and only true Church on earth. And yet, you are aware that the church has been forced to modify its appraisal of itself in recent months because of the amount of material we and others have produced which proves God is working through other Christians in other churches and denominations.

No one body of Christians has a monopoly on truth. The ramifications of that statement are still not fully appreciated by those in the WCG. The fact that the WCG is not the sole repository of divine revelation presupposes that certain other churches may have some truth from which the WCG could and should learn. Yet, WCG members still behave in an exclusivist manner, unable and unwilling to learn from any outside their organisation.

.... The WCG leadership resents us – and others – labelling the WCG as a cult. They have tried hard in the past to defend themselves and ‘protect’ the members from this outside ‘onslaught’ by preaching sermons countering such allegations. Naturally, they will be successful, because they already have the undivided attention of their loyal subjects. But it doesn’t mean that they are right and the ‘dissidents’ are wrong. While you are inside the cult, you don’t see it for what it is. You have friends within. You view it from a human, personal perspective and therefore fail to see the spiritual realities.

Because those within cannot understand why those without say such unkind things about them, they use human reason to rationalise away ‘dissident’ behaviour. Insiders think of ‘dissident’ outsiders: “Oh, they got upset by some real or imagined grievance and now they’re trying to get their own back on those who supposedly wronged them. They haven’t learned to forgive. They’re trying to tear down and destroy all that God has built up in the church. They’re bitter and resentful. They’re against the Church. They’re fighting God and His Church.”

These statements are illustrative of what has been said about us by those within the WCG. They reflect the misinformation that is spread by subtle innuendo to other insiders, thereby psychologically controlling them. They prevent members seeing objectively.

None of those who believe such lies about us have ever talked to us, either in person, or in writing. The church leadership has effectively prevented any contact by its illicit policy of spiritual pin-down (it is not true disfellowship as was practised very rarely in the NT Church because of gross sin). None in the church knows the truth that WE were the ones who were abused by WCG ministers, that we are not abusing the true Church (those who want to be led by the Spirit within the WCG), but that we are speaking out against corrupt practices and against those who are led by Satan within the WCG. The WCG has cleverly confused the minds of members by maintaining that the physical organisation constitutes the true Church, so that whatever the leadership of the organisation says or does must be right, even when it is wrong! After all, God is leading “His Church", so they think.

All this is a result of the influence of false ministers ruling over WCG minds.

...the Church is not a physical organisation. It is a spiritual body, which can transcend denominational or organisational boundaries. It is composed of those who are led by the Spirit of God (Rom 8:14), as opposed to the tares present alongside the wheat. Satan has his elements present, too!

This is where most WCG members fail to discern. They cannot tell the difference between the wheat and the tares, so they follow what false ministers say – in all their subtle cleverness – and fall prey to Satan’s devices.

No one ever analysed their behaviour towards us when we were thrown out of the church. They did not see that they were subtly being encouraged to behave hostilely towards us. They did not see that they were not acting in Christian love by preventing us fellowshipping with them when we came to services one day almost two years ago now. They did not realise that they should have had a say in our treatment, not simply followed the minister in a ruling he had imposed upon us (I Cor 6:1-4). They didn’t know the facts of our case, why we were put out, whether it was fair or even correct. They blindly followed the minister’s decision, because “he is the minister and so he must be right.”

Such is obeisance to man. But what does the Bible say? Whom should we worship, men or God? HWA wrote an article in 1939 which showed clearly that the image of the Beast is the monolith of hierarchic human church government – worship of man instead of God – worship of the identical worldly form of Babylonish government, only it is within the church! He was right! What is ironic in the extreme is that he lost this understanding because of unrepented sin in his personal life, [and] the organisation he later founded went on to become a chief exponent of such perversity! The system of government in the WCG is no different in principle to that of the Church in Rome – Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots! And you are giving your allegiance to such a damned system!

You say God called you into the WCG in a most remarkable way. I don’t dispute that at all. He speaks to us in various ways and I don’t dispute that He had a direct hand in calling you into the WCG. He did so too in my life, beginning in 1965. But He also had a direct hand in allowing events to transpire which caused Helena and me to be jettisoned from the church in 1990. Through our experiences we learned much about human systems of worship and came to see many spiritual things in a new light. Until then, we were unable to perceive the tares growing alongside the wheat. We were unable to discern false from true. We could not discern a tree by its fruits. Now, because of the experiences God has put us through, we can.

I am glad things have transpired the way they have. I am glad we are now outside the spiritual clutches and control of men, some good, some bad, in the WCG. Now we can follow Christ directly. He is able to talk to us and we can listen to Him more clearly than we ever could while a part of a human-dominated regime.

You say that if God wants you to leave, He will speak to you. What if He has spoken to you but you have failed to respond because your mind is so infected by cultish bias? What if you didn’t recognise His voice because He spoke in a different way than last time? As long as your mind is so controlled by the ‘men in the ministry’, you won’t hear God speaking to you. You’ll tune Him out because of human loyalties and other human factors. (End of excerpts.) 

Straightening Out Twisted WCG Theology

The following letters were written to a prominent WCG minister. Needless to say, his pride caused him again to dismiss my words as irrelevant!

11th February 1995

I hope by now you have had time to assimilate the message covered on the video I sent you previously.

The last Pastor General’s Report I have obtained of 21st December 1994 covers the matter of the Sabbath in relation to the New Covenant. Most of what it contains seems above board. However, the one or two heretical statements which Tkach makes, undermine his credibility as a man of God. They show his ignorance and lack of understanding. I hope you can discern. For example, on page 8, he says: “This ‘setting aside’ is not just talking about Levitical and sacrificial laws that were added to the old covenant – it is talking about the old covenant itself. The whole package was set aside and replaced by Christ.”

Oh yes? What Bible is he reading? Matthew 5:17-18 says, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.”

He quotes Hebrews 8:13 on page 6 that “the old covenant is obsolete, or, as Mr. Armstrong wrote, it is ended.” Hebrews 8:13 does NOT say what he thinks it says! He is spiritually blind like HWA! That verse says the old covenant is obsolete “and what is obsolete and ageing will soon disappear.” It has not yet disappeared, although it is obsolete. Something which is obsolete can be superseded by something better while it still remains. If anyone obeys the laws of the old covenant he will receive a blessing for doing so, but we now have something better ADDED to the foundational laws of the Old Covenant. The New Covenant is founded upon the old. The Old Covenant has not been done away.

Tkach is preaching heresy! There are other subtle heresies in that PGR concerning the change of the priesthood and tithing (pp 8,14,15), the so-called Lord’s Supper (it was not called that by the apostles; it was the Passover – p 7), that the promises made to Abraham – Tkach says – were unconditional (p 2), the sign of the New Covenant (p 17), and our observance of the Sabbath as Christians (pp 17,19,20,21). What damnable subtleties of heresy!

No wonder top personnel at HQ have resigned! I don’t blame them. Bully for them!! It’s about time someone stood up against the rot! I recently wrote to some other WCG members, and enclose a copy of one of those letters which summarises the recent resignations in Pasadena. You may or may not know about them. You should be informed.

Perhaps I might also point out that what is said publicly is not what is practised privately by those who lead the church. Here are a few examples of such duplicity. The PGR (vol. 16 no 22) states, “Humanitarian principles are more important than strict taboos” (p 19).

You hypocrites! Helena and I were thrown out of the church over a strict taboo which Xxxxxxxx established! You all backed him up, despite the unconstitutional nature of his ruling. You were happy to sacrifice us on the altars of expedience and church government, to prevent him having to lose face. You ignored my numerous pleas for you to mount an inquiry into our mistreatment. The pride of the ministry of the WCG was more important to you than justice and equity. Where were your humanitarian principles then? Now the pit you have dug for yourselves is ready to entomb you.

Then also on page 19, Tkach, or his ghost-writer says, “We should welcome each other based on faith in Jesus Christ.” You hypocrites! You didn’t welcome us, despite the fact I wrote to you stating my beliefs and faith in Christ, which you did not disagree with. When we turned up at church in Dunstable one Sabbath, we were barred entry and were turned away. Then, when we appeared at Cambridge a short while later, we were ostracised and not permitted any contact or fellowship with members there. Xxxxxxxx cancelled services that day in order to try to isolate us from the members.

The WCG does not welcome others on the basis of faith in Jesus Christ! You’re just a bunch of hypocrites, spouting the right words, but living a lie! If you expect to retrieve the respect I once had for you, you had better DO something to prove your worthiness of my respect. I have lost all respect for your objectivity, honesty and integrity!

Xxxxx Xxxxx wrote you recently to try to alert you to the corruption in the WCG leadership, and you can’t bring yourself to believe that you have been lied to and hoodwinked all these years! Well, you’d better begin to open your mind, because it is true. If Ambassador Report’s bizarre claims about corruption, deceit, misappropriation of funds by the highest WCG personnel were untrue, John Trechak would have been sued out of existence by now. The claims are true!

Wake up! You have been duped. You have been conned like we were, to become part of a cleverly-run cult, which has more affinity with Satan than with God!! You have devoted your life to serving men, instead of Jesus Christ. The deceptions are very subtle. The methods of manipulation and control are equally difficult to see through. They are satanic, and none of us with our intellects alone are any match for the arch-deceiver. He got HWA. At the moment he has got Tkach, his son and others! I hope they can repent when they see the organisation come crashing down.

0The time for clever games is now over. God is not fooled, for what a man sows he will reap. The WCG has sown the wind, it is about to reap the whirlwind. The time for reaping is now here. If I were you, I’d get off the ship before it sinks, or it may drag you down with it, lock stock and barrel....

14th February 1995

Thank you for returning the video about the New Testament Sabbath. [He returned it with a casual, arrogant comment.] If you want to know more of what we are saying and what God is revealing to us, let me know. We have recently had some interesting revelations. Since you now appear willing to learn from us, it would be more polite of you to do so openly rather than secretively. [I heard via a 3rd party that he was obtaining information from others which we had recommended in our publications.]

If you are correct in saying that you do not require the video I sent, I presume you are now going to stand up against the heresy being promoted by the present WCG leadership. After all, you must have read the outrageous statements concerning keeping the Sabbath in the December 21st 1994 PGR. If you are not going to stand up and contest the errors published there, then you do require the information on the video I sent!

The statements about the Sabbath to which I am referring are these:

1. P 17 “The Lord of the Sabbath has come, and the reality has replaced the shadow (Col 3:17).”

Actually, the correct reference is Colossians 2:17. No, the reality has not replaced the shadow! Read that verse carefully. The tense is present, not past: “These ARE a shadow of things that were to come.” They are not disbanded. They are still here, even though Jesus Himself is of far greater importance. A shadow is present while two other factors are also present: the object which creates the shadow, and a light source. Jesus is both of those, and as long as He is here with the light of His Word, the Sabbath is here for us. [16]

2. P 17 “The New Testament Sabbath, the Sabbath of rest that remains for the people of God (Hebrews 4) is the new life in Christ, the life of faith in him, the life of the Spirit.”

No, it isn’t .That’s spiritualising away the Sabbath command. It is true we have new life in Christ, but I seriously question whether Joseph Tkach has experienced that! A man who has not publicly repented of gross lies and deception intended to deceive the church is not living a new life in Christ. So what would he understand about this new life in the Spirit?

I took a sizeable portion of time at the end of that video to explain Hebrews 4 in relation to the New Testament Sabbath. The major meaning of the ‘rest’ in Hebrews 4 is referring to the future ‘rest’ when we shall be made immortal. That, for the firstfruits Church will come to pass while the world is experiencing the Millennium. Paul, who wrote Hebrews, contrary to the varied opinions of many scholars, used the Sabbath as a simile or likeness of that 1000-year rest for humanity. I am informed that the WCG no longer believes that 7000-year plan, so it’s not surprising that you will throw out another piece of understanding as a result. I wonder what will be next?

Our ‘rest’ in Christ now is only a partial meaning of the allegory in Paul’s words about the ‘rest’ of Hebrews 4. To say the Sabbath rest IS the new life in Christ, is incorrect and misleading and is the thin end of the wedge which will ultimately lead to the Sabbath being discarded as an outmoded relic from the old covenant. Tkach has effectively laid the groundwork for that rejection to take place.

That is how the devil works; little by little, eroding foundational truth insidiously, one grain at a time. Over a long enough period, the whole foundation of the building is removed and the building becomes unstable.

3. P 17 “…it is not correct to say that God demands that a breadwinner lose his job over the Sabbath.”

Oh, no!? Who is he to speak for what God would have an individual do? There are many occasions when God WOULD have us put our jobs on the line to obey Him. It’s a pity more aren’t prepared to do so. They’re lukewarm Christians if they aren’t prepared to forfeit their jobs in order to keep the Sabbath holy before God. If Abraham was prepared to give up his son in order to obey God, then we are not Abraham’s children if we aren’t prepared to step out in faith over the issue of the Sabbath.

THIS IS OUTRIGHT HERESY Tkach is promoting! Jesus said in Matt 19:17 that if we are to enter into life, KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS. It is basic. We obey God rather than man (Acts 5:29). Jesus said whoever is not prepared to give up his family, friends, and even his own life for His sake is not worthy of eternal life. Tkach has just proved himself unworthy, not only of leading the WCG, but of eternal life also! Unless he repents, he is destined for oblivion.

We had to face the issue of whether we would obey men or God when we were thrown out of the WCG. You seemed to approve of our mistreatment, because you did nothing to help vindicate us and protect us from ministerial aggression. Now you must face the same test we did. We passed it. We forfeited what we wanted: acceptance by our former friends in the church, vindication and exoneration. We received persecution and rejection. That is what you will now have to experience since you were not prepared to seek justice for the oppressed.

4. P 19 “Scripture says that those who don’t provide for their own families are worse than unbelievers, and common sense says that, too. If the choice is between working on the Sabbath and providing food for the family, it is not a sin to work on the Sabbath.”

HERESY!!! It IS a sin to deliberately break the Sabbath for human or physical ends. His teaching is devious and demonic.

Obey God, irrespective of the consequences; that is the thrust of God’s Word. Trust in Him, and He will work out your circumstances. That is what faith is all about. We have proved it many times. God never lets the true believer down. Tkach is undermining faith in God. He doesn’t have real faith himself. How can he claim to be a reputable leader of the WCG while he demonstrates such a complete lack of faith? He is a fraud while he says such words!

If you support this ‘crap’, and give your loyalties to such a fraudulent system, I question your conversion. I hope you will now stand up and be counted! The time to openly resist the devil within the organisation has never been more apparent than now.

5. P 20 “…the Sabbath is not commanded as part of the new covenant in the way it was under the old covenant. Not keeping it doesn’t make them any less Christian…”

His ‘understanding’ is not spiritual. It is human. That is not the reason God ‘winks at’ the Sabbath-breaking of some Sunday observers. It is not that the Sabbath is not necessary under the new covenant, but that believers are accepted by God according to their heart response toward God. He can see what is in their hearts and they seek to obey Him according to their understanding. Many Sunday-keeping Christians are simply ignorant or deceived about the relevance of the Sabbath to us today.

Tkach should be sacked for promoting such unspiritual garbage and so should McCullough if he tolerates it! There’s no true spirituality in those men if they promote such heresies!

By the same reasoning it is OK to bear false witness against our neighbour, to hate, to kill, to commit adultery and to worship idols. By Tkach’s specious reasoning, it is all a question of expedience; that is what it boils down to. Next, he will be promoting Paul’s words out of context: “All things are lawful for me, but not all things are expedient.”

I would be grateful to know where you stand on this issue.

18th February 1995

I enclose the latest issue of Ambassador Report together with a Pastor General’s Report.

I have highlighted spurious statements in the PGR in which Tkach is watering down truth for the sake of expediency, or simply because his spiritual understanding is fast diminishing. Most of the errors he makes are half-truths: very subtle first steps the devil uses to begin the process of decline and apostasy in people’s minds. The effect of these statements is to cast doubt which has the effect of creating confusion. He is systematically undermining the biblical foundation upon which the WCG was established. Such a process will sound the death knell of the church. It is only a matter of time.

Some of the half truths will possibly take a little explaining to the minds of those who are not well versed in Bible doctrine. I thought I ought to point out some of the errors. I’m confident you have the spirituality to be able to see the devious way he is sowing seeds of doubt which is actually undermining the stability of the church.

1. For example, he says on page 2 that the promises made to Abraham were unconditional. They weren’t! Abraham was to walk before God and be blameless, as it says in Genesis 17:1. It is true the way God delivered the promises, it might give the impression to a casual reader that the promises were unconditional. But, God knew beforehand that Abraham would be obedient and faithful, so God was able to write as if the outcome were a foregone conclusion. Certainly, God’s love is unconditional [in the sense that He offers it before we respond], but I don’t know of any promises in the Bible which were unconditional.

Genesis 18:19 shows that the promises were conditional: “For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, SO THAT THE LORD WILL BRING ABOUT for Abraham what He has promised him.” If Abraham had not done as God had expected, if he had become some renegade or despot, the promises would not have been fulfilled through him. But God foreknew that Abraham would be obedient.

2. On page 6 Tkach claims that the old covenant, because it is obsolete, has been done away. Hebrews 8:13 does NOT say that. It may be obsolete because something better has come with Christ, but it has not ended as he claims. In fact, if anyone lives by the laws and principles of the old covenant, he will receive a blessing for so doing.

3. On page 7, Tkach is subtly introducing the term ‘the Lord’s Supper’, in order to blend into accepted concepts of ‘churchianity.’ The NT mentions this phrase once, and ONLY in negative terms. “IT IS NOT THE LORD’S SUPPER you eat” (I Cor 11:20).

4. His discourse on the old covenant follows, which contains many half truths, several meaningless statements such as, “We are not under the old covenant laws – except, of course, those that are also part of the new covenant” (p 10). What is that supposed to mean? He ought to quote Matthew 5:17-19 and believe it! The old covenant laws form the basis for the new.

“Jesus did away with many laws” (p 11). Oh yes? Which ones?

That is a devious half-truth. He is cleverly laying a foundation of doubt so that his later claims, that we don’t need to keep the Sabbath under the new covenant, will be more readily accepted (pp 17-21).

5. Tithing was voluntary in the time of Abraham (p 14). Of course! Who said it wasn’t? It is voluntary today too. No one can extract tithes out of anyone who doesn’t want to give them! But the fact that tithing is voluntary does not mean Abraham did not tithe regularly. The fact it is mentioned, is evidence that tithing was accepted and practised by the patriarchs. Abraham gave tithes to Melchisedec. The only change on tithing in the NT concerns to whom they are given. There is no longer any Levitical priesthood. Jesus is our High Priest, so we give the tithe to those whom we see truly represent Him. Unfortunately, many have been duped to think the WCG ministers represent Him. No, they don’t. They have come to the point where they only represent themselves and their organisation.

6. “If the choice is between working on the Sabbath and providing food for the family, it is not a sin to work on the Sabbath” (p 19).

That is rank heresy!! It IS a sin!! If we put God first in order to keep His commandments, He will provide all we need. He may let us struggle, but He won’t let us down. Even if we die at the hands of evil men because of our convictions, God still won’t let us down. It’s a question of what we consider important: physical things, or spiritual? That is the main thrust of Jesus’ teaching in the NT. That is faith. Evidently, Tkach has no real faith! He is using human reason to compromise true obedience to God.

True faith is evidenced by our willingness to suffer deprivation in order to serve God. There have been many loyal Christians who endured hardship, persecution, imprisonment, torture and death, in order to do what is right before God. Richard Wurmbrand has written several moving books filled with the harrowing accounts of Christians who suffered and died behind the iron curtain in the sixties and seventies. He never compromised his faith in Christ despite losing everything physically during 14 years of horrendous imprisonment and torture! He stated quite simply that you know what you really believe in when you are prepared to die for it.

Joseph Tkach is not prepared to die for the truths of God’s Word which God specifically preserved through the Worldwide. He says you don’t even have to go hungry over such beliefs if they become points of contention. That is human rationalism in the raw! It is that same reasoning which will cause many to accept the mark of the Beast in the near future. His specious reasoning demonstrates that he is an impostor and not a genuine man of God!

WCG Leaders Are To Blame

1st March 1995

I have enclosed a recent Pastor General’s Report to try and show you how corrupt the leaders of the church are behaving. If I had said three years ago that the WCG leaders were working towards dispensing with the Sabbath and Holy Days, I would have been called an alarmist and a liar. I would have been laughed out of house! Yet, that is what we heard from a third party ‘in the know’ at the time. Frankly, I didn’t believe such a suggestion myself at that time, even though our mistreatment and ejection from the church made us realise some ministers are corrupt and deceitful. I didn’t believe Joseph Tkach was deceitful and devious to that extent. Because I did not know him personally, I gave him the benefit of the doubt.

Now, as you can see from the enclosed, my aspirations for him were not realised. He IS deceitful, cunning, devious and downright dishonest! He is deliberately watering down the truth of God’s Word, to cause the WCG to blend into mainstream ‘Christianity’. He has begun his insidious attack on the foundational truths upon which WCG members were all agreed: that the Sabbath and Holy Days are an important part of NT worship, and that, when God opens our minds to understand their relevance, they ARE a requirement for salvation! He is now preaching they are not required for us to enter the Kingdom of God.

He is ‘achieving’ his object by promoting a series of half-truths, innuendo, misapplication and misquoting of scriptures. You can read it for yourselves in the enclosed PGR. Of course, he is expecting the ministry to comply with promoting his heresies. However, as I mentioned in a previous letter, many top personnel in the WCG have resigned over this matter.....

True to a prophecy which I gave to [WCG minister’s name withheld] over a year ago, the church is being shaken! Only that which is of Christ will remain at the end. (However, not in the WCG – that will probably consist of the detritus which does not want to come out of Babylon and continue to follow God’s lead). This prophecy also stated that a line would be placed before all God’s people to see which side of the line they would tread. Would they be prepared to move forward according to the lead of the Holy Spirit, or would they step back? That line is now being placed before all those in the WCG. It will eventually lead to a separation of the sheep from the goats. Will you follow men or follow God? That is the ‘acid’ test which all in the WCG are to face.

We confronted it over four years ago, when we refused to bow to ministerial pressure to obey them, when we knew God was telling us to do something different. Now they have come to see that we were right, but they are too proud to admit it and .... fear we will undermine their influence.

Now they will be undermined by the events which God is causing and permitting to occur. The days of the WCG are numbered. It is already a vestigial organ as far as God is concerned in reaching the world with the Gospel. He is using others to do that, because the Worldwide leaders are doing their own thing, to please men rather than God.

I have also enclosed some copies of another publication which contained excerpts of articles revealing the deceptions which HWA was so good at foisting on us.¹⁴ We believed God revealed to him the truths about the Holy Days, that the US, Britain and some European peoples were ten tribes of Israel. Actually, he ‘borrowed’ those truths from G. G. Rupert, a member in the Church of God seventh-day, and from J. H. Allen, a non-Sabbatarian minister. The Holy Days were also known and promoted by other independent Christians, one of which was John S. Stanford. HWA lied to us in the church that these truths were revealed directly to him by God, in order to cause us to follow him. We were duped, like so many still in the church, who cannot see the clever way he used psychological manipulation to cause members to look to him and not Jesus. It was a subtle form of blasphemy, but highly damaging. Tkach is perpetuating the same devious behaviour.

In the enclosed you will see how HWA claimed he was to be ‘hob-nobbing’ with the Queen,[17] when no such appointment was arranged. He had such a hyper-inflated concept of himself that his ego probably was subject to self-delusion and demonic auto-suggestion. He sincerely believed that he was to co-host a dinner with the Queen, when it was all false. He never withdrew the impression he had created by misinformation.

He also ‘ripped off’, or plagiarised an SDA booklet, which he later called Has Time Been Lost? ¹⁴

So, I hope you can see that not all that appears rosy on the surface of the WCG is that beautiful beneath. Armstrong, I’m sad to say, was a false ‘prophet’ whose predictions didn’t come true and who deceived his followers to create a following for himself. This was what Paul warned about in Acts 20:30. ‘Drawing away disciples after themselves’ does not mean what many think it means – taking them away from an organised group which people erroneously think to be the ‘true Church’. It is drawing away their minds so they don’t look to Christ, but to the church leader instead. That has happened to such an alarming extent and with such deviously clever means in the WCG, that, until you are outside the church, you just don’t see it for what it is. Of course, those inside the church, because they are deceived in such a way, think the ones outside are those who have fallen away. That is true in some cases, but not all. In fact, the truth is that probably as many have fallen away inside the organisation as have fallen away outside.

Falling away is a spiritual transition, not necessarily a physical departure.  

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