Letters for this section should be addressed to "Letters to the Editor." The editor reserves the right to use letters so addressed in whole or in part, and to include your name and edit the letter for clarity or space. We welcome your comments.
We are all concerned about our church because WCG income declined in the first quarter.
Permit me to draw some aircraft analogies. Our imaginary corporate aircraft has time to take on fuel if we take on our responsibility in time.
As bond-servants of Jesus, in behalf of the WCG, our job is to pump jet fuel to the WCG. It is unwise to delay delivery of tithes and offerings while we protest how headquarters might have softened "our" doctrines or might have wasted "our" money.
Our corporate aircraft needs power now or we risk hitting the trees. In our new covenant joy we have failed to remember that making disciples is much more difficult when we have insufficient funds.
On a local level, we cannot even rent halls with insufficient funds. The new covenant has no demand to tithe, but it does say that God loves cheerful givers. Instead, we have been grumbling and withholding. The good news is: We can repent.
We ought to take hold of personal responsibility, even as we pray for our Lord's direction and blessing. It appears that membership is continuing to slowly decline, which accounts in part for income decline.
Those who remain surely realize that we need to pick up the slack for some who have left and for those who are withholding offerings because of perceived grievances.
We are all still digesting doctrinal and worship changes over the last few years, but we can do our best to provide our headquarters staff with a dependable nonfluctuating monthly income, or we all will lose.
Our focus should be on shouldering our own cross. Let's give our crew the power to pull up before we hit the trees. Most still have treasure in the WCG, and that's where our hearts are. We know we must give more now or risk losing much more later.
Don Preston
Belen, New Mexico
I began listening to Mr. Armstrong on the radio in 1946. I was baptized by Raymond McNair and Rod Meredith in August 1951.
I have really studied my Bible all these years and am still at it. How about the doctrinal changes? I love them.
For some time before the changes were made, I began to pray that our God would open the minds of Mr. Tkach Sr. and all other ministers to understand the New Testament and new covenant and pass it on to us members.
I never once thought that it would split the church in so many ways. I am sorry over that part of it, but still happy over the new covenant teachings. I understand the Bible now more than I ever have--and I'm still learning.
I wish I could help with the offerings more, and I will do all I can. I am 84 years old.
Alean Staton
Bethel Springs, Tennessee
I have been attending the WCG most of my life. The past several years have brought about many earth-shattering changes in my belief system, which involved much soul searching.
I now have an understanding of the difference between the old and new covenants. Although I do not claim to understand either fully, I now, in perspective, accept and welcome the changes the WCG has undergone.
Many members have not been so fortunate. Articles such as "The Worldwide Church of God: From Cult to Christianity" (April WN) have only added to the hurt and frustration we have felt subjected to by headquarters. When did Mr. Armstrong's doctrines become [according to the article] damnable?
And when did he deny Christ's divinity and humanity? When did he deny the bodily resurrection of Jesus?
Member
Editor's note: We received several comments in response to the article "The Worldwide Church of God: From Cult to Christianity." We reprinted the article from the book Kingdom of the Cults, written by the late Walter Martin.
We appreciate the concern about the church shown by those who wrote. Please allow us to explain why we printed this material in The Worldwide News.
Because of our former doctrines, the Worldwide Church of God has been branded as a cult among Christian churches for decades.
During those years, our church strongly condemned all other churches as "churches of the devil" and their ministers as "false ministers" or "Satan's ministers." Because of this and because of our erroneous doctrines, we were called a cult.
God has led us to change our erroneous doctrines and to stop calling our brothers and sisters in other Christian churches "children of the devil."
Unfortunately, many Christian people and pastors do not yet know that the WCG has made these important changes. Because of this, our members often still find themselves alienated from relatives and co-workers who still believe the WCG is a cult.
When our members try to explain that our church has made changes, some people remain skeptical, wondering whether they can believe it is true.
The most influential reference work on cults has been the late Walter Martin's book, Kingdom of the Cults. This is the book most people go to when they want to find out whether a church is a cult.
That book has now been revised and reprinted, and it has updated its section on the Worldwide Church of God, explaining our changes and explaining that our church can no longer be called a cult. When our members refer a skeptical person to this book, the person's reluctance to believe our church has changed is usually removed.
That is why we decided to share the updated portion of Kingdom of the Cults with our membership. Because of the prominence of this book, and the fact that it is viewed as the foremost work on cults, we felt that it is only fair to inform our members about the changes in it and to share those changes with them.
Some questioned the book's contention that the WCG denied the bodily resurrection of Christ.
We taught that Jesus' physical body was changed into a body composed of spirit. Our view rested largely on our idea that God has a body composed of Holy Spirit that is in only one place at one time.
This is the same thing we taught about our own bodies--we would be changed from our physical bodies composed of flesh into new bodies composed of spirit--we would have God bodies too, our fleshly bodies going out of existence in favor of our new bodies composed of spirit.
Scripture teaches, however, that our physical bodies will be glorified, that is changed from a perishable state into an imperishable state (1 Corinthians 15:42). These bodies are called spiritual (not spirit, but spiritual, verse 43). These spiritual bodies are the same bodies, only changed (verses 42 and 43).
Some would argue that this is all semantical and merely a matter of perspective. Others would say it is crucial to properly understanding what Jesus did.
Copyright © Worldwide Church of God, 1998