It would seem that the Bible and Scriptures are very clear in what to do in many situations, but between what it says and what people actually do is a tragic gap. Let’s take what practices people within the church of gods use with the ministers of the church of gods.
Let’s start with Roderick Meredith. Note the bulleted items below:
“documented proof Hitler did not die in his bunker” Plain Truth, February 1965 [Actual fact: Hitler probably didn’t die in his bunker. More likely he was taken out of his bunker and shot by the Russians. However, what the Divine Dr. M meant was, that Hitler was still alive.]
“trade embargo by European Common Market will ruin Britain and US” Plain Truth, February 1965
“within three years by 1969 society will have collapses in America; millions will flee into cities” Sermon, 1966
Turkey will prevent the United States Sixth Fleet from fleeing from Nazi European air attacks and will stab America and Britain in the back, Plain Truth articles in the Sixties
“at the conclusion of the drought and floods we are now just beginning to suffer this nation is going to be punished by horrifying DISEASE EPIDEMICS – plagues.” Plain Truth, August 1957
“In addition to those warnings …we will soon find that hoof-and-mouth disease will spread COMPLETELY OUT OF CONTROL!” 1956 Plain Truth; Title of article: ‘Disease Epidemics Threaten USA in Two Years!’
“After 1965 we are destined to run into increased trouble with the Gentile nations. America and Britain will begin to suffer from trade embargoes imposed by the Brown and Oriental races and by the coming German-dominated ‘United States of Europe.’ …We will begin to experience the pangs of starvation and of scarcity of goods.” 1956 Plain Truth; Title of article: ‘Disease Epidemics Threaten USA in Two Years!’
“Protestant leader credited the Roman priests of Europe as being ‘the minds behind the (European Common) Market’, the real planners of this coming Holy Roman Empire which is prophesied to arise in Europe and CONQUER America and Britain within the next 10 to 12 years … It is later than you think.” Plain Truth, June 1963 [Actual truth: the true “Minds behind” the European Community after World War II were Robert Schumann, Jean Monnet and – most of all – Winston Churchill.]
Meredith proclaims Jerusalem will remain a divided city between Israeli and Arab states until it is taken into captivity: “HALF the city is taken into captivity – yet the other half is not killed or taken away! So Jerusalem is now READY for his prophecy to be fulfilled. It is already a divided city. The stage is set!” Plain Truth, August 1963 [Actual Truth: Less than four years later, far from losing Jerusalem, Israel conquered the other half of it and still retains control at this moment of writing 31 years later. Not only were the Israelis not taken into captivity or driven out, they didn’t do that to the Arabs either. The Palestinian Arab population of Jerusalem is at the time of writing more than double what it was at the time of the Israeli conquest.]
“Dozens of prophesied events indicate that this final revival of the Roman Empire in Europe -and its bestial persecution of multitudes of Bible-believing Christians – will take place within the next seven to ten years of YOUR LIFE!” Plain Truth, February 1965
Franz Josef Strauss will build the German Air Force, the Luftwaffe back into the most powerful air force on earth, the terror of the world–Plain Truth, Repeated in articles from 1956-1962, when Strauss was German defense minister.
“I will abide by the Board’s decision” Sermon, 1998. Actual Fact: But Meredith had no intention of obeying the orders of the church board:
But other ministers came with us and were being added to the Board of the Church and to the Council of Elders. As time went along, some of the Board and Council members began to talk of cutting back on doing the Work of God. As I resisted this, they became more and more presumptuous over the last year. Threats and insinuations made it obvious that if I did not “go along” with them that they would try to remove me from the Board or Council. In fact, in our September Board meeting, they even – over my objections – removed my wife, Sheryl, from the Board and changed the By-Laws so that they can REMOVE ME not only from the Board or Council, but actually disfellowship me from the Church! This makes it VERY CLEAR where they are headed!
The board of the GCG was quick to respond to Dr. Meredith’s throwing down of the gauntlet. Almost immediately, evangelist Larry Salyer, the director of the GCG’s ministry, wrote to the GCG ministry with the approval of board members Raymond F. McNair, J. Edwin Pope, and Norbert Link. A second letter, covering most of the same issues, was written jointly by the four men and directed to the entire GCG membership. In the letter to the GCG ministry, Salyer wrote:
This is a very difficult message to write, and I know that many of you have somehow come to believe such accusations and rumors about me that you may not even care to read what I write. Nevertheless, it is my duty to write, and I will.
This message is from the Board.
I am truly sad to say that after a full day of discussion and guts-out “negotiation,” Dr. Meredith has separated himself from the Global Church of God, and as a consequence the Board had no choice but to terminate his employment with the Church. In spite of the rancor apparent in the letter Dr. Meredith mailed to all members on Monday [23 Nov.], today’s meeting ended amicably, with handshakes and hugs. We bear Dr. Meredith no ill will, and told him we would continue to pray for him. He hoped we could have friendly contact in the future.
We, the remaining Board members, must respectfully but categorically deny the long list of charges and accusations contained in Dr. Meredith’s letter. We consider the letter extremely libelous. Particularly alarming is the fact that Dr. Meredith revealed in his letter that he was already setting up a competing corporation and that he was asking members to send all their tithes and offerings to his personal address, while still in the employ of Global and drawing his paycheck from Global. In addition, we consider this to be a breach of his fiduciary duties as an officer of the corporation.
It should be understood by all that the aforementioned letter was written and mailed during an interim period in our discussions, which we had agreed to so we could all pray about these decisions. Let me amplify that. We held 8 hours of Board meetings on last Thursday and Friday [19 and 20 Nov.] without reaching a successful reconciliation. Both “sides” had proposed certain actions and neither was able to bend enough to solve the conflict.
Dr. Meredith had posed the possibility that he would “leave Global,” which he had also mentioned during our recent Council meeting. We recessed the meeting until Tuesday [24 Nov.], at Dr. Meredith’s request, so that he could have time to pray about it. We asked him directly if he would “try to stir up the Church this weekend.” He said “No, I won’t do anything this weekend.” Nevertheless, during the weekend we heard that he made many phone calls to field ministers asking for ministers to “stand with him.”
Then, late Monday afternoon [23 Nov.], in what could have only been miraculous intervention, we learned that more than a quarter of a million dollars had suddenly been drained from Global’s bank account, through the use of unauthorized checks, signed by Dr. Meredith and another individual who had no power to sign any checks. Further, one six-figure check was payable to the very person who signed it without authority. Thankfully, this miraculous intervention allowed us to stop payment of those unauthorized checks. But we learned that fully one half million dollars was moved from our investment account to the operating account to cover the checks. The only conclusion we can draw from this even larger unauthorized transfer of funds is that even more unauthorized checks were planned to be written later. A logical conclusion considering that all of this was done in secrecy!
By the way, these actions were justified by saying that the money was being used to pay back loans to individuals. Maybe so, but that process always involves authorization and is done according to strict agreements and payback schedules agreed to by all parties. In this case, the loans were not due and payable, and the checks were hand-written, apparently outside office hours, and not through the person who is responsible for such checks. The immediate effect would have been to put the Global Church of God in financial jeopardy and on the verge of bankruptcy. When pointed out that this action, in our opinion, might potentially constitute criminal activity, Dr. Meredith suggested that we could just tell the bank that the signer was a 68-year-old man who didn’t quite know what he was doing.
Roderick Meredith went on to break his promise, left Global with a loan they couldn’t pay, and went off to form the Living Church of God.
He lied, he broke his promise and he turned on his own hand-picked men to make them his victims, all because of ego. Worse, he proposed that they all commit a felony! He is also a criminal thief, more than willing to suborn perjury.
Prophecies pass, they don’t fail.
How many failed prophecies does it take to make someone a false prophet?
Just one.
Concerning prophecy, Kscribe of Church of God Industries had an excellent presentation on “1975 in Prophecy“, where he made the point that anyone who abuses others is obsolete. Church of gods leaders have used false prophecies of “secret knowledge” for years to abuse others, just as an abusive husband abuses his wife. Roderick Meredith is obsolete.
Just in case things are not clear enough, check out Matthew 7:15 and note that Jesus Christ himself is quoted as saying that false prophets are ravening wolves. Prove one and you have the other. There is no Generation-Y “make nice” where “we can’t judge what people are inside”. We can. And we were commanded to do so. If you are a lamb who has compassion for a wolf so that you insist none of us say bad things about him, will you be any less dead when he eats you?
Blast from the past…