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PASTOR_
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'1.1
REPORT
TO THE MINISTRY OF THE
WORLDWIDE CHURCH OF GOD
VOL.l, N0.9
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA
HOW WAS THE CHURCH
FORMED?--
BY POLITICIANS OF THE STATE
OR UNDER DIRECTION OF G O D ?
By Herbert W. Armstrong
(September 26, 1979)
SEPTEMBER 28, 1979
NOW politicians trying to take over and run the Worldwide Church of
God are saying that I, as an apostle, have no voice or authority in how
church funds are expended, but only in what they term "ecclesiastical
functions"--while on the other hand, Mr. Stanley R. Rader, because he is
not yet ordained, has no authority in the church's "ecclesiastical"
affairs.
In other words, the politicians are trying to tell us on what basis
the Church of God must be organized.
This Church was founded in 31 A.D. by Jesus Christ. The present era
of that same Church was founded in the autumn of 1933, according to the
biblical pattern as ordained by the Almighty God. The present era was
started in Oregon, not in California. Yet California politicians are now
trying to tell us how it should have been formed.
First, although it is organized according to GOD'S pattern in the
Bible, it is not a secular organization, but a spiritual organism.
In I Corinthians 12, the Word of God tells us that in addition to
spiritual GIFTS, "there are DIFFERENCES OF ADMINISTRATIONS, but the same
Lord. ... But all these (spiritual gifts) worketh that one and the self
same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He (God) will....For the
body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not
the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? ... But
now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath
pleased him (not politicians) .... And God hath set some in the church,
first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that...mira
cles..." (I Corinthians 12:5-28).
In Ephesians 4 these ranks are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pas
tors and teachers. They are for the Church
1
s WORK (verse 12).
Very evidently these officers are listed as ranks in authority. For
example, only four prophets are mentioned in the New Testament, and not
one set any church doctrines or beliefs. Not one exercised any authority.
There are no prophets in the church today, and no record of any for 1900
years.