Herman Hoeh: Jesus Wasted His Time Preaching If You Gather Together Without A Minister Present

This was written by Herman Hoeh and was in the Good News October 1957:

What is the purpose of the ministry?

To instruct the brethren to grow in love and in good deeds — exactly as Heb. 10:24 mentions. Then God intends THE PASTORS to set the right example and to instruct the flock which should assemble WITH a minister. IF BRETHREN COULD ACCOMPLISH THIS BY ASSEMBLING WITHOUT A MINISTER, THEN JESUS WASTED HIS TIME TO TRAIN INDIVIDUALS TO BECOME PASTORS OR ELDERS. Then He was mistaken in training the disciples to preach and to feed the flock, if the flock could feed itself!

The very fact that the ministry is FOR the edifying of the church is PROOF POSITIVE that assembling without a shepherd will NOT lead to UNITY and perfection in knowledge. Without a pastor, disunity, contention and error will inevitably arise in a local group. EXPERIENCE PROVES IT!

What is a person to do if they have a minister that treats them like dirt?  What if someone has a minister that tells them to abandon their loved one a the mall so the state can take care of the loved one?  What if a woman has been molested by a minister or severely beaten by a husband and the minister tells her she still has to attend church with him? What if your minister sexually assaulted one of your children?  Why in the world would anyone need to sit there and listen to this crap when, if they wanted, they could gather with friends and open their Bibles and study together?

The above is all about control.  Members have always been considered too stupid to know anything about the Bible, even though their founder never had any theological education, other than parking his butt in a public library for 6 months while not working to care for his family.

Church leaders need members to gather together in order to control them and take their money.

They forget this one simple scripture though that says they don't need a minister present:

Matthew 18:18-20The Message (MSG)

18-20 “Take this most seriously: A yes on earth is yes in heaven; a no on earth is no in heaven. What you say to one another is eternal. I mean this. When two of you get together on anything at all on earth and make a prayer of it, my Father in heaven goes into action. And when two or three of you are together because of me, you can be sure that I’ll be there.”

Matthew 18:18-20King James Version (KJV) 

18 Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.19 Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.20 For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.

 

The Hope and Desire of Church of God Self-appointed Leaders

In Ron Weinland's latest book he has the following comment which describes the ultimate hope of every single Church of God leader out there today.

That Church has been small from its inception. It has been hated, maligned, persecuted, and a vast number of its leaders have been imprisoned and/or even put to death. It has been so small that most in the world have never even known of its existence. But that is all about to be changed, as it is now God’s purpose to make it a powerful Church, and the only Church on earth. 

How many decades have we all heard this exact same thing.  "The church is small since its inception"...not true at all!  The church grew and millions have been touched by the words of Jesus and who, in massive numbers, are better Christians than ANY of the Church of God leaders we have today.

According to the false prophets of the Church of God, their god was too impotent to preserve his word for future generations.  Little itsy-bistys groups of men (always men) held on to "the truth" and kept it hidden till Herbert Armstrong listened to his wife and started his own church.  Then, in only six months, he found it all hidden in the Eugene, Oregon library.  God was a crafty dude to hide it there!

Yes, for centuries good men and women were been killed for their faith and continue to be to this very day. From martyrs in Iraq to those killed in Syria and Egypt, they stood up for their faith, secure in their beliefs.  Not so in the Churches of God today.

The men leading the Churches of God today have never stood up for anything.  They have never been persecuted.  All any of them have done is create groups to secure their financial success and standing.  In spite of their grandiose dreams and boasting, 99.99% of the world has never heard of any of the COG's.  That much in Ron Weinland's statement is true.

I can state emphatically that Jesus will NOT return on Wednesday, June 9, 2019.  Nothing will change on that date and God certainly is NOT going to make Ron Weinland's personality cult a powerful church any more than he will ever make any of the Churches of God powerful and the ONLY church on earth.  Why would anyone alive today want to live in a kingdom ruled by spiritual despots like Dave Pack, Ron Weinland, Gerald Flurry, James Malm, or Bob Thiel? Who would want to be ruled over by any of their nasty and vindictive members?

The hope and desire of real Christians is something greater than any of the pipedreams of current COG leaders.  That hope and desire is rest and release from the burdens of life as their burden are lifted and carried by one greater than them. There will be no ruling with rod's of iron or police states that so many in the church think they will be able to set up when they are made rulers of their worlds.

Leaving the Faith, Paying the Price

If you haven’t left an oppressive religious community, peeking inside one may seem novel, a curious poking of your nose into a weird upside-down world where everything mainstream culture takes for granted is swapped out for some alternate reality. 

If you have left such a community, though, stories of others who’ve also found their way out induce a mix of panic and relief. Critics try to stay neutral, but I can’t pretend One of Usdidn’t sock me in the solar plexus; the documentary about three young people trying to make their way outside of Hasidic Judaism is laden with a familiar sadness and longing.

My own background is much closer to an earlier film from One of Us co-directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady: the 2006 documentary Jesus Camp, which looked inside a charismatic Christian summer camp for young people that trained them in spiritual warfare (and to an extent, conservative political warfare). That film is hard to watch too. 

Whereas Jesus Camp focused on the faithful, though, One of Us takes a different tack in its examination of an insular religious community (and one that’s more impenetrable to outsiders). Instead of talking to the true believers, Ewing and Grady follow the questioners. The film’s revelations are two-pronged: They uncover much about the Hasidic community, while also more broadly exposing how insular groups keep people in and everyone else out. It’s hard to leave, even when staying is impossible too.  Excerpt from : In the moving Netflix documentary One of Us, 3 ex-Hasidic Jews struggle with secular life

Freedom to be, is the greatest blessing and the price one pays to leave the flock.