A Book of Remembrance

“Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him”

(Malachi 3:16, 17).

The Church of God is an unique organization. This means that by its very nature it is exclusive to all others. As covenanted members of the Church, we were made to see the uniqueness or nature of the Church by virtue of a divinely given revelation. Being convinced of this vision by the Holy Ghost, we united as one in the purpose of working toward one goal.

Satan, being the arch enemy of the Church, was determined to destroy this vision and disrupt our unity which resulted from our espousal of the divinely given vision or revelation. He knew an open attack would fail because it would have been too obvious. He therefore had to use subtility to achieve his goal. He did this by a gradual allurement of the Church into a worldly and complacent attitude. This deceptive process took years of chipping away at the Church’s doctrinal foundation. Little by little, Satan began to make inroads into the Church by planting doubts and questions into the minds and hearts of unstable members. By maneuvering some of these doctrinally unstable members into key leadership positions, his boldness increased and his attacks became more vicious.

In James 1:15, he said “…when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin…” We can see by this verse of Scripture that the seed of sin which was planted in the Church by Satan (see parable of the sower in Matthew chapter 13) had to come to maturity. The permissiveness which followed was the Ishmael spirit which was reaped from Satan’s seed of sin. Allegorically speaking, sin and righteousness cannot co-exist together. The Scripture speaks in Galatians 4:30 to, “… Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.”

Therefore, a divinely appointed separation was in the making and no power on earth could stop this divine principle of God’s Word once it was set into motion.

In the Assembly of 1986 the Holy Ghost spoke to us and said there was a nation inside a nation; a people inside a people; and a church inside a church. The Spirit went on to say that He would take His Church out of the hands of flesh and put it back into the hands of the Spirit. A plea came from Heaven for the Church to repent. God gave the Church a space to repent, but overall this call from God went unheeded. The Holy Ghost had also spoken that God’s sword of judgment was in His hand and His hand was raised over His Church.

During these times, discontent and unrest continued to grow. As the leadership of the Church began to become lax due to failing health problems, an undercurrent of carnal leadership began to align themselves for power because of personal ambitions and aspirations. The General Overseer called for a meeting in April 1990 to convene April 30 - May 2 for the Presbytery of the Church to come together to select help for the General Overseer by possibly finding a replacement for his office. With a change of leadership on venue, Satan took his cue to move in and do his diabolical work of seeking to destroy the Church of God.

Theocracy is a Biblical principle, found only in The Church of God. The Church cannot be the Church without theocracy any more than a body can be alive without the blood. The principle of theocracy works in unanimity in all seeing eye to eye and speaking the same thing. Submission and obedience makes this possible. The safe ground is when it, “seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us…” (Acts 15:28). In the presbytery meeting, theocracy was replaced with democracy when the new General Overseer was selected with a split vote of 33 to 48. This is where the Church left the principles of the Word of God and begin to go on her own.

In this battle for the truth, the doctrine of theocracy as mentioned above, was the first to fall. With this fundamental foundational stone being removed, it would not be too difficult to dislodge other doctrines which conflicted with carnality. The Assembly of 1991 saw another Bible truth fall to the ground. Despite efforts made by loyal Bible believing members and pleadings of the Holy Ghost to continue in the “old paths,” the teaching against the wearing of gold for ornament was swept aside in a democratic fashion. Hearts were broken and spirits were crushed in the process. The new leadership seemed determined to dismantle the Church’s scriptural heritage and doctrine and make it one with the denominational system of the religious world.

God’s eternal Word cannot fail. We knew somehow in our hearts that God would bring us through this battle if we would seek Him and remain true to His Word. He had made a promise to the Church in Isaiah 54:17 that, “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.” In spite of the spiritual darkness which had engulfed