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Written by Administrator
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May 02, 2009 at 08:24 AM |
As we enter another year we are faced with many decisions. One of those choices is who we will support financially. After careful consideration based on many events we have chosen to withdraw our support from the Denver based Church of God (7th-day).
Several years ago, after hearing countless stories about things that were occuring in the CoG7 our founder decided to become more involved and see with his own eyes and hear with his own ears. After doing so much of what was being relayed was proven true and others have made the same observations. The church is in serious decline and diverting from sound biblical teaching. Becoming lax in Sabbath keeping we've been aware of pastors who still travel on Sabbath and buy gas. This is the same as doing business on the Lords day.
Some CoG7 members complained that the church had been promoting Christmas. The BA's response was to "restate the church's objections to Christmas and Easter" and also noted that it "defends the right of Christians to worship in ways not overtly commanded in Scripture; and suggests that the celebration of nonbiblical holidays by earnest, biblically committed believers may fall under the 'doubtful disputes' rubric of Romans 14."
Some of the new views and thinking has been taken from other demoninations and the leadership in the CoG7 has adapted more to a "mainstream" point of view. They are no longer "set apart" as they once were and as the scripture tells us to be. We are not as "peculiar" as we once were. It suggests that the thinking is to soften, or water down the doctrines of the church in order to appeal to a wider audience.
Leadership roles of women have changed in the church to a more mainstream thinking, allowing women now to take on roles that were once specific to men. That the teaching that a bishop needs to be the husband of one wife now also means that a bishop can be the wife of one husband. Is this not interjecting mans own thinking?
God was never interested in masses (many are called but few are chosen), he is more interested in holiness and people who truly love him.
In December of 1999 our founder was asked to fly to Denver, Colorado to the General Conference of the Church of God (7th-day) to become part of the new web team. This experience was not good and our founder in many cases was insulted by the leading pastor in many cases. Hurling insults in an attempt to gain "control." The entire operation was comprised mainly of people that did not show spiritual maturity but rather very infantile behavior. The leading pastor even suggested that being on the web team may even hold some prestige. This is a very carnal view.
Again in October of 2006 our founder went to the General Conference offices of the CoG7 for a two day media forum. Prior to this, Whaid Rose had the link to our site removed from their web site. When we enquired as to why this was done we received a responce that it was because we had a link to a singles site. We were being judged based on their experience with another singles site. We contacted Whaid on this issue since they had another link to a site that also had a link to a singles site. Yet they hadn't removed that link as well and it wasn't even a link to a site owned by anyone in the CoG7. When our founder met with Whaid in his Denver office, after some conversation Whaid promised that the link would be put back. This promise was made more than once yet was never done. Was this a lie also?
Many times when we contacted Whaid directly with specific questions, he did not return answers, but replied with other questions which suggests to us that he is dodging the issues. His approach seems even deceptive since discussions with him are vague and misleading. We asked him if there are churches leaving the Conference since we were aware at the time that several spanish churches had left. Yet he replied with the question, "Do you know of any churches that have left?"
Whaid asked our founder if he would coordinate a booth at the 2007 Convention for the Media Team and Issachar Forum, a vision ministry of the CoG7 that serves as a vehicle for supporting ministries in the church. During the course of that event notes were taken and ideas received from people, pastors and overseers about things that need to be done and accomplished in the church. Much of this was emailed to the Denver office and media team members which seems to have fallen to the wayside since then.
We spent about $2500.00 in travel expenses from our own resources to benefit the work of the Denver CoG7 to become part of the Media Team and Issachar Forum. Both of which seemed to have fizzled out since many of the projects that had been started, including the Sabbath teachers meeting the same weekend of the Media Forum meetings fizzled out as well. We spoke with other people who traveled there as well and they felt the same, that after they took the time and spent the money to help the conference, later the work died out and they were left feeling like they wasted their time and money because the Conference lost interest in them.
We believe that when a church asks people from around the country to travel hundreds and even thousands of miles that the matter should not be taken lightly. There needs to be more concern for the people who want to work in the church and those who spend their money to make these trips. The Denver office does not cover all of the travel expenses for people who go and help them. They cover a small portion of it only.
After the 2007 Convention we reviewed articles published in the Journal by Allan Knight and had observed the same things as he did. Yet Whaid Rose had instructed our founder at one point not to read the Journal. We ask, "Why not?" Is the Journal revealing the truth about what's actually going on in the church? We think it is.
Since becoming involved in the work of the Denver CoG7 we've seen enough to convince us that the first commandment in many cases has been disregarded. There is little concern for people in the church and more focus on "church business." Thirty years ago there was more of a focus on the ministry, we saw more tracts, more activity that reached people and was designed to win souls. However in recent years we've seen a change in those trends. Reading some of the tracts we also have observed there are not as many and the message not as clear. It's a message that attempts to reach the masses rather than to promote holiness in the body.
Others have witnessed the same things published in this article. These are not words to stir up strife because they have come out of the mouths of two or three witnesses. Others are seeing the same thing. It's been said that when we have an issue that we should take it to the church and we firmly believe this. But when all that's been done and the church is still blind to what the witnesses are trying to tell her, it's time to take the next step and warn people. To try and do something to open the eyes of this generation. We don't take a negatve approach to life, our view is very positive. Each of us are gifted by our creator when we are born again, we believe that those who are gifted with this insight are being ignored by an ecumenical church. They have insight from the Holy Spirit, maybe they are even prophets some of them, yet the church is rejecting those who are hearing from God. These people will never be warmly received because of their message, but it's time somebody acknowledges it and realizes that what is being told to our leaders is true and right in the eyes of God.
Contrary to a long history of contra-trinitarianism from the very beginning of the Church of God (Seventh Day), Whaid Rose, its current President, in an interview in The Journal of February 26, 1998, said that trinitarianism could be a valid expression of belief in understanding the nature of God, that trinitarianism is ok because we cannot understand God. Gilbert Cranmer and Joseph Bates would turn over in their graves if they knew this heresy would come to the top echelons of Sabbatarians today.
Whaid Rose says that his friend Joseph Tkach does not have a motive to get the Church of God (Seventh Day) to give up the Sabbath, when Tkach has publicly stated his mission is to the Sabbath-keeping community, implying he wants them to give up the sanctity of the seventh day Sabbath, as he has done in the Worldwide Church of God. I believe Tkach means what he says. Is Rose a polyanna, or willfully ignorant?
Should Whaid Rose resign his office or be removed from it we will reconsider supporting the Denver based CoG7, until then we cannot. The CoG7 holds to the view that if you don't have a paper saying you are a church leader that you don't have a voice in the church. Moses didn't have a paper either, and neither do many of the true servants of God. A paper doesn't make you anything. The Holy Spirit of God does!
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Last Updated ( Jan 09, 2010 at 10:47 AM )
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CoG7 Letters 
