WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

The early Church began with twelve men chosen from among the disciples of the Lord. For approximately three and one half years they enjoyed the intimate fellowship and communion with the Lord, the Organizer and the Head of His Church. They began with no earthly goods—no property and no money. Their power and success was the result of a day-to-day walk with the Lord. He taught them by both precept and action. They heard Him preach to the multitudes and perform miracles of salvation and healing. They were there when He was crucified and they were there when He arose from the dead. Soon after the Holy Ghost fell upon them at Pentecost they began to reach out further and further from Jerusalem. After the initial appeal to the Jews their attention and ministry turned to include the Gentiles also. As the Church became more and more successful and grew in numbers as they reached out to the distant areas, it also became more and more vulnerable to those who attempted to introduce false doctrines designed to soften the message of God’s holiness and righteousness in order to appeal to even more deluded souls who would not otherwise qualify as members in the Church. In short, this attack on the high spiritual standards of The Church of God was finally successful in bringing God’s disfavor upon it to the extent that He turned His back upon it and it ceased to function. That was some 300 years after it had been set in order by Christ on Mt. Hittin.
Over one an a half millenniums later, in the year 1903 A.D. God called the Church again to resume its course to prepare itself for the marriage to the Bridegroom. God put His hand upon a man by the name of A. J. Tomlinson to lead the Church back into the mainstream of God’s divine will and purpose. It arose amid a mighty Holy Ghost revival and thrived not only on the power and miraculous working of the Spirit, but also upon the sound doctrinal preaching that taught people to live in a right relationship with God in holiness and righteousness. But again the devil would not let it be. It didn’t take a millennium and a half for him to do his diabolical work this time. In just twenty years he had marshalled enough forces together to bring the last day’s Church into a state of error, false doctrine, and apostasy. In 1923 A. J. Tomlinson made his declaration that he would not submit to the forces of error and deviate from the avowed purpose of the Church to be faithful to Christ, its Head in everything…

He, too, started over with nothing but an unfailing determination to do the will of God at any cost…within twenty more years the Church had experienced phenomenal growth. God called A. J. Tomlinson home and by the theocratic process placed his younger son Milton A. Tomlinson as General Overseer and leader of the last days Church. In the 46 years of his tenure the Church experienced its greatest growth this side of the Dark Ages. In the years from 1923 until 1990 the Church had grown from an open-air meeting on Central Avenue in Cleveland, Tennessee, to a thriving organization with modern facilities and an abundance of finance to keep it moving on a worldwide scale.

But all was not well. The devil again saw his chance. With the failing health of the General Overseer, Satan took his opportunity to strike openly with a blow that had been building with little notice for years in the Church. He brought about a breach in the theocracy and opened a flood tide of deviation and abandonment of the precious government and doctrine that had until then incurred the favor and blessings of God. The attack was swift and effective. With an unrelenting pursuit of “new light” by those who fell into error and apostasy, the great Church of God was left to those who would not accept the forces of error. We would not bow to the intimidating powers that are bent upon rule or ruin.

So here we stand. We have taken up the torch and we are determined to stay the course. We have a worldwide mission with no resources but God. Our stand was not motivated by a promise of material security and well being, but by an irreversible determination to follow God wherever He leads.
We have started from base zero in both finances and organization. We are seeking God in both these areas to find His perfect will. We do not want to repeat previous errors. We must be good stewards of the resources God makes available to us. We do not want to repeat the past error of persons becoming independently wealthy on the hard-earned and sacrificial giving of our people; neither do we want to amass great sums of money to keep in reserve for opportunities that may never come. We want every penny to be wisely used for the immediate and on-going work of the Lord and His Church throughout the world. The time is too short to think in any other terms. It is imperative that we find and put into practice the biblical financial system that best serves the plan and needs of the Church for this age…
The organizational aspect of the Church is also in a state of redevelopment. It is necessary to have trained and qualified persons to be responsible for the various areas of Church functions necessary for us to carry out the Great Commission that Christ the Head of the Church gave to us. Just who these persons will be and the areas of their responsibilities are in the process of being determined.
In years past God gave helps to the Church to do its work efficiently and effectively. I do not believe the Holy Ghost was wrong in giving us these helps which came to be known as auxiliaries. These entities working within the Church performed a vital and necessary ministry. When they are all operating as they should in every respect they not only provide a ministry to a particular aspect of the Church, but all of them together provide a channel through which every member from the youngest to the oldest can fulfill a service to both God and humanity through the Church.

In the past several years in the Church the auxiliaries fell into disfavor and in some cases even ridicule. That attitude about these God-given helps offended me, because I saw both their practical and their spiritual validity.

Each one of them is a definite ministry and there is more than abundant Scriptural support for them. They are spiritual ministries as well as in some cases fund-raising agencies to further promote and provide for the total ministry of the Church. They are a spiritual blessing both to those who are involved in them and to those who benefit from them…

It will be necessary to operate the auxiliary program on the local and state and national levels at least for the time being. We are asking the pastors of the local churches to appoint leaders and get all auxiliaries operating as soon as possible. These ministries will not only add to the spiritual quality of the local church, but they will also help to fulfill the total world outreach of the Church in general. It would be good for us to remember the slogan so often used by the former General Overseer A. J. Tomlinson, “Every member a worker, and a special work for every one.” Participation in the work of the auxiliaries should be considered working for the Lord, because they are God’s own choices, given by Him to the Church as “helps” to get the total task accomplished which was given by our Lord to us in the Great Commission. It should be a joy and a blessing as we work these “helps” as unto the Lord. Their usefulness will be fulfilled when we get the work all done.

In these last days, the closing days of this age, we are going into uncharted waters; that is, as far as we are concerned. God knows exactly where we are in time and location. We need not fear to walk by faith and not by sight. God may have planned it this way so that we will walk closer to Him and seek our directions from Him.

We are, no doubt, that generation “upon whom the ends of the world are come,” as Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 10:11. Our course will be different from that of any previous generation on earth. The event of the rapture is reserved for that Church which has made herself ready and will be more glorious than at any other stage of her existence on earth. She will be glorious beyond description.
ARE WE STILL COMMITTED?
Former General Overseer Robert J. Pruitt