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PUBLISHED BY THE WORLDWIDE CHURCH OF GOD
VOL. 2, NO. 41
PASADENA. CALIFORNIA
NOVEMBER 8, 1978
HOW CHRIST GIVES CHURCH its DOCTRINES
by Herbert W. Armstrong
I had not realized it before, but I find that somehow there seems
to have been a supposition among some--more or less, I do not know
to what extent--in the Ministry to assume that Church DOCTRINE is
set by the Church.
This is MOST IMPORTANT--for God commands through the Apostle Paul
that in the Church we must ALL SPEAK THE SAME THINGS, that there be
no divisions among us.
It ought to be obvious that for ABSOLUTE DOCTRlNAL UNITY, the
doctrines, practices, customs should be PUT INTO the Church by Jesus
Christ, the living HEAD of the Church.
It is apparent that, in the ministry, we were NOT all speaking the
same thing--or at least in harmony and of one mind doctrinally.
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I quote from a letter from Dr. Robert Kuhn. "After much consideration,
I feel that it is proper that I should personally take full responsibility
for the Systematic Theology Project. I was the primary participant and
therefore must accept full responsibility for all its aspects, . . -�
Mr. Armstrong, please believe what I wanted to do.
My sole desire
has always been to support you and help the Church doing God's Work.
The circumstances surrounding the Systematic Theology Project were
exceedingly complex from its inception as an effort to thwart the
ministerial dissention and silence the doctrinal critics in 1974 to
the writing of the papers (and the editing) during the time of your
illness in late 1977. Throughout my personal objective was always
to simply, powerfully and'\wholeheartedly uphold Church doctrine in
the most effective rnanne{. · However I failed in this,. I come before
you� the Ministry and the Church to ask forgiveness."
I gather from Dr. Kuhn's letter that it was assumed that the
doctrines of the Church are those agreed on by a group of ministers at
Headquarters.
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His letter continues, "My only goal in coordinating the project
was to bring doctrinal consistency, stability and unity to the Ministry
and the Church during a very traumatic and protracted period."
That brings me to �ay this:
1) The very fact that such a project was contemplated, planned,
or being worked on,
·
was deliberately kept from me by my son"."-and many
top-ranking ministers· were.demoted, or shanghaied away from Pasadena,
and threatened with
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termination of their ministry if.they contacted
me··in_-any,:..way •
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