How Does God Correct the Church?

In the past several years I have been receiving an increasing number of e-mails from both the Body of Christ and sometimes the public proclaiming that the ICG, if not the entire Body is grossly wrong on some doctrine or teaching.  Frequently the charge is that the church has been in error for decades, if not as long as two-thousand years.  Invariably the person contacting me is imploring or even demanding that the church correct the error immediately.

If an error exists, just how does God go about correcting it?  What does the Bible tell us?  What examples do we have about how God works?  Just yesterday, as I write this, I received one such e-mail in which the writer stated he felt there was an error.  The e-mail was just by way of introduction and the actual error was not defined.  He promised that in a follow-up e-mail I have yet to receive.  Following is an excerpt of my reply to this gentleman and addresses some very important questions regarding God's correction of the church.

 ~begin excerpt~

When the statement is made about the leader or the church as a whole having made a "serious" error about primary "trunk of the tree" doctrine, some questions have to be asked from the Godly point of view [rather than a human one].
 
First a general question:  Based on what we know about false doctrine and false ministers, especially in the end time and especially having the knowledge of Satan and how he works, don't you think that someone somewhere could find "serious error" in every word and every booklet and every sermon and in every doctrine the Worldwide church [before the apostasy] and later the ICG church ever uttered or published?

Count on it.  I have seen statements about "serious error" regarding most every subject one could care to list.  Don't you find that rather interesting?  Is it surprising to you?  It is not surprising to me.  Now the Godly perspective.
 
The whole conversation about "serious doctrinal error" makes absolutely no sense if one believes that the church in question is a True Church of God.  If the ICG is a true church of God and Garner Ted Armstrong was His called servant, who was in absolute and full control of that church?  Was it me?  Was it Garner Ted Armstrong?  Is it now the present leadership?  Is it the collective ministry?  Answer:  NONE OF THE ABOVE.  God is the one in ABSOLUTE CONTROL...is He not?  So why would He allow "serious error"?  What would be the purpose?  This concept is not even remotely the same as apostasy where, as Paul said, God allows apostasy to test the faith of the brethren.  In those cases the church still and always goes into full apostasy [knowingly preaching false doctrine].  In those cases, the Bible is clear and both you and I followed Biblical instruction and walked away from the apostasy.
 
What we have in a charge of "serious error" is something totally different.  We are not charging apostasy, but rather "serious error" that needs to be IMMEDIATELY corrected somehow.  In this case, it is a "serious error" that has been allowed to stand for decades and decades.  Why?  For what purpose?  How does this get written up in the Book of Acts later?  "They were my faithful church for decades but they never had some of my teachings correct and I [God] allowed them to be in darkness for decades and decades and never lifted a finger to correct them."  Is this the way we will see it written?

I wrote about this in my Minister's Notebook piece, "Write It In The Book of Acts." 
 
I, personally, see no reason for such a case.  God called His church, in part, to worship Him in truth and to preach the truth.  Why would He allow the LIE or the ERROR?  I see absolutely no example of such a case in the entire Bible.

Now take this reasoning times at least 100 other alleged "serious errors" I see presented day-in and day-out.  Remember and keep remembering that your sighting of a serious error is compounded by hundreds of other individuals presenting me with more than a hundred other serious errors?

HOW DO SERIOUS ERRORS GET CORRECTED?
 Assume for a moment that there is a "serious error."  Clearly there have been errors in the history of the church but God has always corrected the errors.  Whereas we see at least one example of an early minister getting corrected by Priscilla and her husband, Aquila, we never see a lay member or even a field minister coming forth to correct the entire church by:

1] being the agent who exposures of the error.
2] being the agent who offers and/or demands the correction.        See Diagram
 
If this was God's way, can you see the massive, massive, massive precedent it would set?  Unordained members, field ministers and even non-members could and WOULD come forth with countless corrections for the church.  How would we handle that?  Why would God set this precedent?  In all of the examples in both the New Testament, who do we see bringing the "corrections" [so called]?  Korah came to correct Moses.  Several members opposed Paul and his way of doing things.
 
I am just asking questions here.  If there is a serious error on the table, we first have to acknowledge who is going to correct it:

1] God clearly will be the agent who corrects it.
2] God will do it through the servants [leadership] in question.

Clearly if you and I are made knowledgeable of the alleged error...

1] Almighty God must have brought us the knowledge of that error.
2] He could have just as easily made the leader of the Work privy to the same knowledge.
 
Moreover, if the lay member or field minister WAS given this most important knowledge by God, it could ONLY be for ONE purpose, namely to tell the church WITH the massive and immediate response by that church to correct the error....RIGHT?  After all, if the Holy Spirit can move the one with the clarity of the matter, He will surely use that SAME power to open the mind of the church or its leader...RIGHT?  Of course.  God is in absolute control.
 
MEANWHILE SIMILAR THINGS ARE AFOOT
The New Testament is replete with descriptions and warnings of people with alleged revealed knowledge in one form or another.  These end time descriptions cannot be denied.  Therefore, if we have people coming forth with enlightenment on "serious" errors in the church, who are they and how and where are these things taking place?  Notice:

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. –2 Tim 4:3-4

Questions: Who are these people not enduring sound doctrine?  If they are not enduring sound doctrine, what doctrine are they enduring?  Where did those doctrines come from?
 
For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers –Titus 1:10

Questions: Who are these people?  Where are they?  Who are they talking to?  Who is being deceived?
 
Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. –2 Tim 3:7-8
 
Questions: Who is ever learning and not coming to the truth?  In the example, is it Moses who was in error?  Who are the reprobates concerning the faith?  What do they want?
 
Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron. –1 Tim 4:1-2
 
Questions: Who is departing from the faith here?  Who is speaking lies?  Is it the church?  Or is it members?

Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck: Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme. –1 Tim 1:19-20
 
Questions: Who is putting away faith and good conscience here?  Are we not speaking of members?  Is Paul in error here or Hymenaeus and Alexander?
 
Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. –2 Thess 2:3
 
Questions: Who is falling away?  How does this begin?  What moves them to fall away?
 
Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision [cutting apart; mutilation]. –Phil 3:2
 
Questions: Where do these dogs come from?  Who is cutting apart and mutilating the church?
 
Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. –Gal 1:7
 
Questions: Who are these causing trouble?  What form does the trouble take?  Since the charge here is one of perverting the gospel, are we not speaking of people seeking to do away with it or to change it?  What is this attack on the gospel and how does it unfold?
 
But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. –2 Cor 11:3
 
Questions: Whose minds are being corrupted?  Who is making the simplicity of Christ hard?  Who is attacking and attempting to do away with or change the simplicity that is in Christ?

For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works. –2 Cor 11:13-15
 
Questions: Does this verse not point blame at Satan?  Aren't all the dogs and deceitful workers actually working for Satan?  Don't they all appear as bringers of light and righteousness?
 
Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. –Acts 20:30
 
Questions: What generally happens when someone seeks to correct the true church of God of their serious errors and fails?  Don't they generally leave to attend elsewhere or to establish their own church?  Is there even one righteous example in the Word of God of a man leaving a true church of God to begin yet another true church of God?  I can't find it.  Now if the person bringing the clarity of the error is being enlightened by God to somehow correct the church and he fails, what is his Godly judgment?

I would think that as we look at even the possibility of serious error in church, we must ask ourselves and answer each and every one of these questions.  These verses show us the path some falling away and fallen away members will take in the end time.  Why would God send a righteous man down the same path, using the same methods as the unrighteous man?  Wouldn't He use a different and decisive way that would work the first time and not fail?  Wouldn't He bring this correction and truth directly to the mind of the leader rather than a member or field minister?

When God does bring correction to HIS church, has He EVER failed to do so?  Does God fail in anything?  Would God leave HIS church in error on a major doctrine for 2,000 years?  For 50?  For 30?  For 10?  You make the call.

~end of excerpt~

I want to add a couple of other thoughts on this very important subject.

The Disciples in the Resurrection
It was the disciples who began the church from that first day on the Day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was first given and so many were baptized into the Salvation Process and learned the truth and doctrine of God.  Now, some twenty centuries later we still find God's true church spreading the gospel and carrying out His great Plan of Salvation.  The question is, when Christ returns and the disciples are resurrected and rising up into the air along with all the 20th and 21st century members, will they recognize these thousands of members as being of the same faith they hold?

Is not God, through Christ bringing the same truth and doctrinal clarity today as He was in the first century?  Are not the doctrines the same?  Won't the disciples and members of those times see us as same-believing members of God's church?

The Pentecost Change Argument
Without fail, as soon as I post this text, someone will be swift to point out the church's change on Pentecost back almost forty years ago.  They will use the argument to support their alleged case of alleged error.  I immediately see at least six elements which make this argument null and void:

1) The error was pointed out by a minister high in the organizational structure of the church at that time.  He was not an unordained member or field minister.  He merely submitted a paper on the subject to Herbert W. Armstrong.
2) The paper this man generated came from his own clearly inspired study and research and not from sources outside the church, such as ministers and/or members of other organizations or institutions.
3) The man pointing out the error did not seek to immediately establish the changes himself or to split from the church and gather a following to himself.
4) The leadership reviewed the subject over a rather lengthy amount of time which included study, research, fasting and prayer.  When the correction was invoked, it was done so from and by the leadership of the church.
5) The error was a technical one [of math] and not one of teaching, doctrine, attitude or faithful worship.  No procedure was changed.  No knowledge or meaning of Pentecost was altered or added to.  Only the day was changed.  We worship and teach Pentecost exactly the same today as we did then.
6) The correction was done in order and without division in the church.  As God, used His Holy Spirit to inform the leadership of the error and the correction, He informed and gave clarity to faithful members throughout the world.

God is the same today as He was when He established this church two thousands years ago.  He is the teacher and the one who gives knowledge, wisdom and clarity.  He is the one who calls every individual to His church and who puts specific members into positions of servant leadership.  If an error develops, He is the one who brings correction to those servant leaders and then to the entire congregation.  His correction never begins with rebellion and division among the congregation.

God is in control.

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