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PASTOR'S REPOR-r
PUBLISHED BY THE WORLDWIDE CHURCH OF GOD
VOL. 2. NO. 43
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA
NOVEMBER 22. 1978
IS CHRIST STARTING A SECOND CHURCH?
by Herbert
w.
Armstrong
HOW MANY CHURCHES does God have at one and the same time?
The dissidents following a MAN, Garner Ted Armstrong, are
now speaking out of both sides of their mouths. They KNOW that
God condemns following a MAN. So, in an effort to take members
away from God's Church, actually THREE false claims are being
spread.
1} They are spreading the LIE that Garner Ted Armstrong
is only doing the same thing his father did--FALSELY claiming I
left the "Sardis" Church to pull away their members and so start
a church of my own. The long article recently appearing, on
"How the Worldwide Church of God �� Being" ought to NAIL
THAT LIE! a} I did not leave them, for I had never been a mem
ber of them; b} I continued working alternately with their two
main divisions--Stanberry, Mo., and Salem,
w.
Va.� I was still
working with them in 1945, 12 years after the present "Philadelphia"
era came into being, 1933. Note that in this he concedes the
7 churches of Revelation 2 and 3 were consecutive eras, as well
as seven continuous conditions in the 6rie Church. �
2) Again they admit the successive eras depicted in Rev
elation 2 and 3, claiming that my son is now starting the "Lao
dicean" era of the Church. But God does not start His Church or
any era of it by one disfellowshipped for causing division,
sowing the seeds of discord among brethren, and then attacking
God's Church and trying to draw away its members after him, on
pretext of being a CHURCH--when those few are only following
A MAN. It is NOT a Church! It has no Apostle, Evangelist
Pastor-Elder organization. It is NOT proclaiming Christ's Gos
pel into all the world for a witness unto all nations! It is
a MAN, with one or two working with him, merely seeking to take
away members of God's true Church.
3} Then they speak out of the other side of their mouths,
I am grieved to say. This time, they say Revelation 2 and 3
do NOT portray seven SUCCESSIVE stages or eras of the one true
Church. Apparently they try to explain, or tw1.st its true meaning,
by saying seven is God's number of completeness--therefore there
are now MANY churches, as Roman Catholic, Methodist, Baptist, etc.
etc.--all of which COMBINED constitute the BODY OF CHR�ST. Anyone
who believes that had, perhaps, better get into one of them, or
follow a man who has incorporated himself to be a church. But a
legal corporation does not make it GOD'S CHURCH!
It might be interesting, at this point, to explain the TOTAL
DIFFERENCE between what Garner Ted is now doing, and what his