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Signed in as:
filler@godaddy.com
Written by Herbert W. Armstrong
Published in the December 18, 1978 Issue of the Good News Magazine
In an effort to mislead and draw away God's people and tithes, the misleading idea is now being circulated that this MAN (not Church) also preaches the Gospel. So, why not divide your tithe, sending half to the man and half to God's CHURCH — or else send it alternately to each.
Satan is subtile, and he does deceive even the greatest of men. Let's honestly consider that crafty suggestion.
1) The tithe is GOD'S tithe, not yours, and is to be sent to GOD'S CHURCH, where Christ, alive and well, is actively working, directing and blessing.
2) God has only ONE Church, and that Church has a few hundred local congregations worldwide, all a PART — and an integral working part — of the ONE spiritual organism, the Worldwide Church of God, which is "built upon the FOUNDATION of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom ALL THE BUILDING [with its many local congregations] FITLY FRAMED TOGETHER groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord." Its whole body (with its many local congregations worldwide) "FITLY JOINED TOGETHER AND COMPACTED by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working [together]... of every part..." (Ephesians 2:20-21, 4:16) Jesus Christ does not HEAD, guide, and work in any competing man or church. Christ is NOT DIVIDED! Christ's Body is led on earth, UNDER HIM, by His chosen apostle whom HE appointed and used in BUILDING His Church in our time. God's TRUE Church is performing the FUNCTION of the Church — carrying Christ's Gospel message to all the world.
3) The man who wants half of God's tithe does not speak the same thing. On the one hand he attempts to draw your support saying, "I preach the Gospel too — so give me half the tithe." (The Baptists, Lutherans, Catholics, all profess to preach the Gospel — but it's not the same Gospel.) Then on the other hand he contradicts himself — speaks out of the other side of his mouth — saying he does not agree with God's Church about Church eras, about this and about that!
No, brethren, he does NOT preach the same Gospel. He was attempting to water down God's true doctrines and oppose its doctrines and its apostle and to become the self-appointed head of God's Church.
That's why he was DISFELLOWSHIPPED from God's Church. He WAS NOT speaking the same thing. GOD'S CHURCH cannot speak with an UNCERTAIN SOUND!
4) This man is NOT a Church of God. A man can incorporate himself, under man's law, using the NAME of a Church — and he came as close to the name "Worldwide Church of God" as possible, TO DECEIVE and mislead brethren into thinking he is THE SAME CHURCH. Any "Tom, Dick or Harry" can incorporate himself, with the signatures of a couple other men as "directors" in the name of a church. BUT THAT DOES NOT make him a church! This effort to deceive, by using a name so close to "Worldwide" Church of God, is possibly subject to civil prosecution as an attempt to defraud and receive money under false pretenses.
Of course, God's Church will rely on Christ for protection. However, since he intentionally incorporated under a name so close to "Worldwide Church of God," and it tends to confuse and harm God's Church, steps have been taken to prohibit his incorporating or operating under that name in any other states.
5) This disfellowshipped man is not preaching any "gospel" into all the world for a witness unto all nations. His preaching is aimed only at you in God's Church, to draw you away from the Church headed by Jesus Christ. He does not preach any gospel to the world to teach those who know not Christ's Gospel. He seeks only to unsettle you who have already accepted Christ's true Gospel. His whole effort is a resentful and bitter one to "GET"- not to "GIVE."
One member wrote, stating clearly which is GOD'S Church. It is:
1) Where God's TRUTH is. Not with one disfellowshipped for trying to water down that TRUTH.
2) Where God's true Work is going out to the WHOLE WORLD.
3) Where Christ's chosen apostle is.
God's tithe is to be PAID to GOD'S Church, where CHRIST is working. Jesus Christ does not work in two "churches," one competing against and trying to draw members from the other. Christ is NOT DIVIDED!
God does not have two churches — only the ONE Church that Jesus Christ founded in A.D. 31 and raised up to carry on in OUR time through His own chosen apostle.
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