Paul Warns Against The Deadly Leaven of False Doctrine

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Many who joined or grew up in the churches of God that sprang from the Worldwide Church of God founded by Herbert W, Armstrong and now in the many tiny splinter groups led by ministers trained by Him are readying for the Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread. These Annual festivals are found in Leviticus 23 and Deuteronomy 16. They were commanded observances for the ancient Israelites who had just come out of Egyptian slavery by the delivering hand of God. Herbert W. Armstrong (HWA) taught his followers that God COMMANDED the church to observe this Feast of the Lord along with the other six.

You were never taught the truth by your ministers that Jesus Christ during His life time condemned this and His words are recorded in the Gospel of John! The observance of the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread are part of what was considered Temple worship by the Jews in Christ's time,  Passover in the Old Testament. Neither was I during my 45 year journey through the churches of God (COG). I was among the thousands of children that came into the church with parents and grew up under the teachings of HWA. I was strict in observing these feasts as were my parents (actually not observing, but that is a topic for another time). I married in the church and was blessed with two beautiful children. I faithfully attended all of the Festivals until two years ago. I had been attending the United Church of God and began to understand why the churches had been fractured so badly after the death of HWA in 1986. 

The Churches of God teach that observance of the Old Testament Annual Sabbaths, or Feasts, are commanded by God for New Covenant Christians. This doctrine was introduced by Herbert W, Armstrong while he was still and elder in the Sabbath keeping Church of God Seventh Day in Oregon.[1] This was several years before he started the Radio Church of God, later renamed the Worldwide Church of God. From the founding of the Christian Church by the original Apostles Christ appointed on Pentecost 31 A.D. until today the Apostolic church of God did NOT observe the Old Covenant Laws of Moses. Many historians and Biblical Scholars have written histories of the true church and confirmed this. There are many volumes that are available on the internet that confirm this fact. One example HWA used were the Sabbath Keeping Waldensians, under the leadership of Peter Waldo in the 12^th century. They did observe the Sabbath but they shunned the Old Testament rituals as Pharisaical and legalistic. They knew they had been ended at the cross (Colossians 2:14). Catholic Church documents confirm this. When the Sabbath keepers were martyred for rejecting the Catholic Church, it was noted that they also rejected Judaism and the law of Moses as pharisaical. They were being burned at the stake for their belief in salvation by Grace through Faith and nothing else thus rejecting  both Judaism and Popish legalism. It was their rejection of the Pope and the purported authority the church claimed to possess that cost them their lives.

Jesus himself taught against the same practices. His teachings at the well of Jacob in Samaria are pivotal in the establishment of the new covenant with Jesus as the mediator. This event is found in the Gospel of John chapter 4:21-24 where Christ taught clearly that the Temple worship ended at that very hour and God must be worshiped in a NEW way. “In spirit and truth,  because God is spirit.” Jesus said no longer would worship be with physical rituals in physical temples. Read Jesus’ own words in the following passage,

John 4:21-24 (KJV)

 ²¹Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain [2], nor yet at Jerusalem [3], worship the Father. ²²Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. ²³But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. ²⁴God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Why then does the ministry of your church, if you are following Armstrongism,  contradict Jesus’ own words?  Jesus also taught that the Law and the Prophets were only prophetic of Him and the coming of Salvation through Faith.

Matthew 11:13; (KJV)

 ^"13For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John."  

Not after. The law and the prophets came to a sudden end at Christ. Christ was the End of the Law. Romans 10:4.

What does the Apostle Paul teach about Christians going back to the Law of Moses, and what does Paul say about those who teach Christians they must? 

Galatians 5:1-6; (KJV)

¹Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. [4]  ²Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.  ³For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.  ⁴Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace. ⁵For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.  ⁶For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.  ⁷Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?  ⁸This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you.  ⁹A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.

Paul is fighting against Jews who came to the churches in Asia teaching they had to go back to the law of Moses for salvation. This issue was decided by the Apostles of the Jerusalem Church in Acts 15. The law was not required for salvation. Only The Grace of God and our Faith in Christ crucified was required. Anyone going back to the old covenant laws and practices were fallen from grace (⁴Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.) 

A very dire warning that your ministers ignore!

While being diligent in removing leavening from your homes you actually bring in another leaven that is far worse as Paul writes in verses 8 and 9;   This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you.  ⁹A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. Paul is saying that by going back to practices of the old covenant it is a more deadly type of leaven of false doctrine that cuts a believer off from salvation. Any who teach you this false doctrine of observing the Passover and days of unleavened bread are “hindering you from obeying the truth.” 

See verse 7; Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?   

Paul is clearly telling us that keeping the old law is teaching us to NOT OBEY truth. In fact, the True Doctrine of Christ is the opposite of what your ministers teach you! These ministers are blinded by a veil over their minds that Paul writes about. It is there and will remain blinding them until they accept Jesus through Grace exactly as God offered through His Grace and not our works of the law.   

2 Corinthians 3:1-18, (KJV)

 ¹Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you?  ²Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:  ³Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.  ⁴And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward: ⁵Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;  ⁶Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.  ⁷But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:  ⁸How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?  ⁹For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.  ¹⁰For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.  ¹¹For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.  ¹²Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech:  ¹³And not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished:  ¹⁴But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ. ¹⁵But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart.  ¹⁶Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away.  ¹⁷Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.  ¹⁸But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

At this time of year we must focus on Jesus and the supreme sacrifice He offered as our Passover. His own broken body and shed blood are the memorial of the final passover sacrifice once and for all. The Apostle Matthew records the NEW symbols that Jesus Christ instituted for New Covenant Christians. They are a memorial sacriment so Christians, "as often as you do this" do in rememberance of Me.

Matthew 26:26-28,

 ²⁶ While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.” ²⁷ Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. ²⁸ This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.  

Finally, in John 15:10 - Christ tells us that we must keep HIS commandments as He kept His Fathers. In this we can be sure we will remain in His love.

John 15:10(NIV)

¹⁰ If you keep My commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.

In verse 12, Jesus encapsulates HIS command for us in this; "...that you love one another as I have loved you."

By reading from the Torah, or Law of Moses, and thus teaching Christians that they must observe abolished and obsolete rituals and customs cuts the believer off from Christ and is left fallen from Grace. This was a prophesied stumbling stone to the Jews who loved the fact that they had the Law of Moses. They rejected and murdered the prophesied Messiah because they lacked the Faith to accept Him. But were in fact blinded by the veil over their understanding.  The Churches of God follow this doctrine of blaspheming the Words of Christ and the Apostles. They do this by denying men access to eternal life through faith IN Jesus Christ,  Our Only Passover!

Christ has been victorious over sin for us, we ARE the unleavened now. All of these things were fulfilled in Christ as prophesied.  It is not the leaven of yeast that the Christian has to fear now, but the deadly spiritual leaven of FALSE DOCTRINE that infests the Churches of God!

Beware of the Leaven of the Pharisees as Jesus warned.

[1] See: Steve Nichols History of WCG, and John Kiesz Letter, Elder of the Church of God (7th Day).  [2] . On this mountain referred to Mt. Gerizim in Samaria in the town of Sychar (formerly called Shechem) where a Samaritan Temple once stood that rivaled the Temple in Jerusalem in Nehemiah’s time.  Both the Samaritans and the Jews worshiped the same true God in Christ’s time, the Samaritans were more strict in many ways than the Jews. [3] The Jerusalem Temple was the Temple King Herod build for the Jews, it was a replacement for the Temple built in Nehemiah’s time that was destroyed in 175 B.C. It was the religious center of Judaism in Christ’s time. [4] See Acts 15 Jerusalem conference (v10) for Peter’s teaching on burden of the law.