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Christian Biblical Church of God
Post Office Box 1442
Hollister, California 95024-1442
(831)-637-1875
Fred R. Coulter
Minister
September 2, 2008
Dear Brethren,
As many of you are aware, questions have been raised recently concerning the circumstances of my decision to resign from the WCG nearly 30 years ago, on the Day of Atonement, 1979. Only my wife, Dolores, and two others knew that I was going to resign. It had become clear by that time that we could no longer continue with the WCG, because the leadership of that organization had become obsessively totalitarian, abusive and corrupt. The opulent squandering of God's sacred tithe money was mind boggling. The WCG's world-traveling apostle, tailored his "preaching" to "world leaders" to avoid offending them, conveniently changing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a watered-down "gospel" of "give verses get." Similarly, he substituted "salvation by an unseen hand" for the visible, powerful return of Jesus Christ to save the world from self-destruction.
In addition to these mammoth problems, the last straw for my wife and I was the ongoing blatant political ordinations of unqualified men to "high offices"--as ruling evangelists.
Because of misunderstandings, some over the past several months have distorted the true reasons for our leaving the WCG. In an effort to clarify matters, we are including in this mailing the resignation sermon that I delivered to the congregation in Monterey, California, on the Day of Atonement in 1979. During that sermon, Leroy Neff and Ron Reedy, from the Pasadena headquarters, were sitting in the audience.
In this mailing we have also included The Rest of the Story (parts 1 and 2), which relates some of the background and the struggles we had with some of the WCG leadership in 1972-74 concerning the writing and publication of the first edition of The Harmony of The Gospels.
Finally, we are including an extended sermon, Invisible Idol--Visible Man, which outlines the typical structure and function of a strict "from-the-top-down rule" church government. The sermon is based on the book Toxic Faith, which deals with abusive hierarchical church governments and cults. The book was originally written to expose the tactics used by cult leaders such as Jimmy Jones--who blinded his followers with "toxic faith." As you may recall, Jones' followers ultimately committed suicide in the jungles of South America, just as their "idol-god" had commanded them.
Regrettably, many of the same dictatorial, toxic, "addictive faith" practices used by various cults leaders around the world are also employed in some of the churches of God--causing many to believe that the churches of God are "cults"! Such "church leaders" typically demand blind obedience of their followers--toxic, "addictive faith," indeed!
Dealing with the "power structure" behind such church governments, Toxic Faith fully exposes the rigid, demanding, mind-controlling practices used by cult leaders to dominate and hold their followers in bondage and fear. Such misguided, corrupt, arrogant and abusive leaders deceive their followers into believing they are obeying "God's chosen man" and doing the will of God.
For those of you who, in the past, have experienced such demands by a church leader to follow in blind, toxic "addictive faith," you will fully understand and identify with the tactics described by this book. We have included a five-page outline of the "power structure" of such hierarchical governments.
It is fitting that with this special CD we have completed the sermon series What is the Government of God in the Church? This series of eight sermons will help each of us to genuinely appreciate God's true government based on His love for those He calls.
Feast of Trumpets and Atonement CD: In the USA, we are also enclosing the CD for the Feast of Trumpets and the Day of Atonement. In other countries, the CDs will be mailed to you from their respective offices according to their own schedule.
Feast Coloring Books: Don and Bonnie Burrows have worked tirelessly to produce two children's coloring books this year. The first one is for the Feast of Trumpets. You may order copies for your children by writing, calling or e-mailing us and we will promptly send them to you. The Feast of Tabernacles coloring books will be sent to all feast sites. If you are unable to travel to one of our feast sites, then you may also order copies from the office.
Youth Series Volume Three: In addition to the coloring books, Don and Bonnie have also completed Volume Three of the youth series: The Proverbs of Solomon, the Son of David. The Proverbs provide excellent instruction for youth and teenagers, covering all aspects of growing up and entering into the adult world. We will be sending these to all feast sites. We will also include a copy in the first mailing after the Feast of Tabernacles.
Occult Holidays or God's Holy Days--Which? In the second edition of this book--now at the printers--we have updated all of the quotes from the Old Testament using TheHoly Bible In Its Original Order. We have also updated and expanded many other sections, as well as adding a full chapter, "The World of Entertainment: Vehicle of the Occult." Finally, we have added an extended appendix covering all of Paul's difficult-to-understand scriptures concerning the laws and commandments of God. With these additions, this book is the most complete work ever published contrasting the Satan-inspired occult holidays of the world with the Holy Days of God as revealed in His Word. The book lays bare the sharp distinctions between the light of God's way and the darkness of Satan's occult ways that grip the world.
You will not need to order this book as we are going to mail copies to everyone on the mailing list. We will ship a supply of this second edition to all of our offices, and they in turn will mail copies to all of you living outside of the United States.
Change of Address: If your address has changed, it would help us greatly and speed up the delivery of your mail if you would please send in a CHANGE OF ADDRESS notification ahead of time. This way, we will not have our mailings returned to us and you will continue to receive your mail without interruption.
We wanted to get this letter to you the first part of September--approximately four weeks before the Feast of Trumpets--because the holy days and the Feast of Tabernacles occur during the time that we normally send the monthly letter. We realize that this is a large mailing, but we wanted to get this material to you before the fall festival season, since many of you will be traveling. Because this mailing is so big, we will probably not send another letter until after the Feast of Tabernacles.
Thank you brethren for your love and prayers. We are praying for you that God the Father and Jesus Christ may continue to bless you in all things. Have a great Feast of Tabernacles!
With love in Christ Jesus,
Fred R. Coulter
FRC
