Did Peter and the Key-Man Principle Pass from Herbert Armstrong to Rod Meredith and then to Gerald Weston?

Church of God News has a post up about how Living Church of God's Rod McNair claims the office of Peter passed from Herbert Armstrong to Meredith and then upon Meredith's death it passed on to Weston.

COGNews is correct in pointing out that Herbert Armstrong found great umbrage in Rod Meredith's actions and treatment of members.  Herbert Armstrong never passed on any authority to Rod Meredith and certainly never intended for him to start two different splinter churches.  HWA received countless reports about how Meredith was mistreating members and finally took action banishing him to Hawaii for a year.

But more importantly was the claim that Herbert Armstrong assumed he could bind and loose earthly things in heaven, particularly when it came to doctrine or church traditions.  The biggest example of this was the change in the date that the church kept Pentecost on.  In an instant, it went from Monday to Sunday.  The same could be said about other doctrines of the church, including the make-up doctrine. One minute it was on, and then the next off, and then on and then off again all bound and loosed in heaven, over and over again.

On September 8th a video by Rod McNair, ‘Peter and the Key-Man Principle’, was uploaded onto both the lcg.org and Facebook websites, and also YouTube. 

In an interview with Jeff Booth in 1980, Herbert Armstrong declared: 

“The title, and the keys, passed from chief apostle to chief apostle, from Peter to Peter. Each chief apostle was the new Peter. 

He said, ‘Now I am the chief apostle, and I am the Peter’.”

“Whatever I bind is bound in heaven, and whatever I loose is loosed in heaven.” “The Day of Pentecost is now on Sunday. But, since I had made the decision to observe Pentecost on Monday, for years the Day of Pentecost was actually on Monday.”

If Herbert Armstrong held the office of ‘The Peter’, as he believed, did he pass it  to Roderick Meredith? Herbert Armstrong wrote to Roderick Meredith (later in 1980), rejecting him as a possible successor:     

“Rod, in frankest candor, JESUS CHRIST will NEVER put any one at the head of His Work on earth who is competitive, covetous of power and status, and self-righteous. In brutal frankness, you lack the charisma to lead God's work. You do not attract - as I said before, you REPEL people. You are a harsh taskmaster over those under you. THAT IS YOUR RECORD!” 

How then can the ‘Peter Principle’ have passed ‘the title and the keys’ from Roderick Meredith to Gerald Weston - giving him the power to bind and loosen biblical doctrine?

COG leaders who have started various splinter groups have all take this "binding and loosing" to themselves and who feel they are God's only vehicle to do this.  Dave Pack takes it as far as claiming that he is able to know whether God has forgiven people for their sins or not.

“…and whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven…” Some will say that this verse gives men the power or authority to change what God has said in the Bible. This is absolutely not the case! No man can change what God has said! The true ministers of God have been given the authority to bind only that which is in agreement with God’s laws. That, then, would be backed up—bound—by God. When God’s ministers make a decision, it is based on Scripture—based on God’s will. But this in no way is giving ministers the power to forgive sin. Only God can and does that (Mark 2:7). God does give ministers the ability to discern when a person has repented of certain sins, thus concluding that God has forgiven them.

No Church of God minister has the qualifications to discern any such thing.  COG leaders have always placed themselves between their members and God.  COG leaders no longer have any control over members lives because not a single one of them received any authority from Peter that supposedly was held by Herbert Armstrong.  HWA could neither bind nor loose any doctrine or belief any more than any present-day COG leader can.  Whether it is Gerald Weston, Dave Pack, Gerald Flurry or Vic Kubik, none of these men have that power handed down to them from Peter.  It is an impossibility.

Living Church of God To Soon Start Additional Monitoring Of All LCG Families

Give us all of your information!

Just received this from an LCG source:

We have just been informed that all LCG members will soon be receiving a call from their pastor, or his designated handler, to verify all family information.  this is being dine under the guise that LCG records are not up to date and they need to make sure their family and individual profiles are accurate.

The church has been having a huge issue over the last year or so with membership not attending services as regularly as they used to.  Many LCG members are frequently attending with other COG's now that Weston has assumed power.  So many are disgusted by the corruption in the church and the increased number of rules and legalistic demands that Weston has placed on members so that some have chosen to attend elsewhere at times and also to give tithe money to other groups occasionally, or to hold on to it.

Part of this "accuracy check" is also letting ministers determine if the members are still paying tithes.  When membership drops, income drops and the powers to be start scrambling to determine what is going on. LCG is also looking at information on how often members are attending church.

The Church of God has had a long history of using member checks to verify tithing income levels.  Pasadena WCG routinely went through tithing records of members and employees and used those records to determine job status and perceive income levels that they used to determine how much tithe money members should be sending in.  Dave Pack and Gerald Flurry have taken this spying on members to new levels and have used it as a tool to threaten salvation and membership status. Being disfellowshipped and publicly humiliated in the pulpit by public vilification frightens many people into toeing the line.

This appears to be one more tool in monitoring members and keeping them in line and compliant.  The good thing is that many LCG members are no longer toeing the company line and have started to think for themselves.

David C Pack: Listen to Your Heart, Not Him!