How Many Steps Away From the Light?

By Timothy Kitchen Jr.

There is something that ought to deeply concern every member of the scattered Worldwide Church of God.

How far have we wandered?

Not merely how many years have passed. Not how many organizations have been established. Not how many ministers have separated from other ministers, or how many congregations have divided into smaller congregations.

But how many steps have we taken away from where God originally placed us?

How many steps away from the trunk of the tree?

How many steps away from the foundation?

How many steps away from the building site where Jesus Christ was building His Church?

And perhaps the most important question of all:

Have we become so accustomed to wandering that we no longer recognize we have left?

The scattered condition of God’s people did not begin with the most recent disagreement between ministers. Nor did it begin with the latest organization established by those dissatisfied with another organization.

There was a beginning.

There was a first step.

And with each successive generation of splinter groups, there has been another opportunity to take yet another step away.

The question is whether we recognize what has happened—and whether we are willing to return.

THE FIRST STEP AWAY

Consider what happened following the changes that overtook the Worldwide Church of God after the death of Herbert W. Armstrong.

Groups began separating from the organization. Ministers gathered followers. New corporations were established. New names appeared. New headquarters were organized.

Many believed they were preserving what had been taught.

Others believed they were protecting the truth from the changes taking place.

Yet something happened that deserves careful examination.

Instead of returning to the foundation upon which Christ had been building, many began establishing separate organizational foundations.

The first generation of splinter groups emerged directly from the Worldwide Church of God.

That was the first step.

Then disagreements arose within those groups.

Some members and ministers separated again.

New groups were established from the first generation of splinters.

That was the second step.

Then those organizations experienced their own divisions.

Another minister disagreed. Another congregation separated. Another organization was formed.

That was the third step.

And the process continued.

One generation produced another generation, and that generation produced still another.

Today, the scattered membership can find itself several organizational generations removed from the Worldwide Church of God.

But have we considered what this means spiritually?

A person may have taken only one step away from the group they previously attended, while that group itself was already several steps removed from the original foundation.

One step away from a group that is five steps away is not one step away from the beginning.

And with every new generation, the distance can become more difficult to recognize.

But this pattern of departure was not something Herbert W. Armstrong failed to recognize.

Years before his death, he warned the Church about the danger of taking even one step away from the truth.

And he used a remarkable illustration to explain it.

THE DARK WOODED FOREST

One Step Away From the Light

On December 8, 1980, Herbert W. Armstrong published an article in The Worldwide News titled “Satan Deceive and Use Me?—Never!!”

In that article, Mr. Armstrong explained how someone who has received God’s truth can begin departing from it through what initially appears to be only a small step.

He illustrated this danger by describing a person walking through a thickly wooded forest on a moonless night.

Ahead of that person is an experienced guide carrying a lighted lantern.

The guide knows the way out.

The person following does not.

As long as the person follows the light, he is being led safely through the darkness.

But suppose he takes just one step away.

Perhaps he turns aside because something catches his attention.

Perhaps he believes he has discovered a better direction.

Perhaps he simply hesitates.

The guide continues forward.

The light moves farther away.

And suddenly, the person who was only one or two steps from the path finds himself lost in the darkness.

Mr. Armstrong explained:

“If one turns aside from God’s truth on just one point”

And if that person refuses to repent, the departure continues.

One step leads to another.

Then another.

Until the person who once followed the light finds himself wandering through the darkness, increasingly unable to recognize the direction in which he should go.

Mr. Armstrong identified the light of the lantern with the Holy Spirit illuminating the Word of God.

He referred to Psalm 119:105, where God’s Word is described as a lamp to our feet, and Matthew 25:1–13, concerning the oil and the lamps.

The Holy Spirit opens our understanding of God’s Word, leading us step by step into greater truth.

But what happens when someone rejects the truth he has received?

Mr. Armstrong warned that unless he repents and returns to the light, further steps into error will follow.

Now consider what this means for the scattered Worldwide Church of God.

The first generation of splinter organizations represents those who stepped away from where they had been.

But what happens when someone follows a person who has already wandered?

That person begins following from a position already removed from the original path.

And what happens when another follows him?

Another step.

Another generation.

Another organization.

Another separation.

The first wanderer may remember the guide.

The second may remember only the first wanderer.

The third may know only the second.

And eventually, an entire generation may grow up knowing nothing of the original path except what the previous wanderers have told them.

The danger is no longer merely the first step away from the light. It is the generations that have learned to follow those who already stepped away.

This is why the question is so important:

HOW MANY STEPS AWAY FROM THE LIGHT ARE WE?

How many steps away from the truth restored through Herbert W. Armstrong?

How many steps away from the foundation?

How many steps away from the spiritual Body of Jesus Christ?

And how many have become so accustomed to following another wanderer that they no longer recognize the need to return?

The answer is not to establish another path through the darkness.

It is to return to the light.

And that requires recognizing where the first departure occurred.

Mr. Armstrong’s warning was not simply about the danger of departing from an organization.

It concerned departing from God’s truth, rejecting the leading of the Holy Spirit, and allowing one unrepented error to lead into others.

This is the lesson that must be applied to the scattered Church today.

The question is not merely which group we are following.

The question is whether we are still following the Guide.

And if we have wandered, will we hear His call to return?

Source: Herbert W. Armstrong, “Satan Deceive and Use Me?—Never!!”, The Worldwide News, December 8, 1980, p. 1.

MR. ARMSTRONG WARNED ABOUT MEN ESTABLISHING THEIR OWN CHURCHES

There is something especially significant about Mr. Armstrong’s 1980 article.

Immediately following his illustration of the dark wooded forest, he discussed ministers who had departed from God’s Church and attempted to establish churches of their own.

He described how these ministers, having rejected certain teachings, subsequently introduced additional doctrinal changes.

Among the doctrines he identified were tithing, divine healing, participation in worldly governments, God’s government in the Church, and the annual Holy Days.

The warning was not merely that a person might leave one organization.

It was that rejecting one point of truth could lead to the rejection of others.

And that the process could continue.

Mr. Armstrong asked how such departures began.

His answer concerned the first compromise, the first wrong attitude, the first resentment of God’s government, or the first step taken in a direction contrary to God’s truth.

Now consider the significance of this warning.

Mr. Armstrong was writing in 1980.

He was describing the dangers of departure and the establishment of separate churches years before his death in January 1986.

He had already witnessed ministers leaving and attempting to establish their own organizations.

He had already warned about the spiritual consequences of those departures.

And he had already explained how one step away could lead to many more.

What would he have said about the generations of splinter organizations that followed?

What would he have said about groups separating from groups that had already separated?

What would he have said about ministers establishing new organizations from organizations that were themselves established through earlier separations?

His original warning gives us the principle by which to examine these developments.

One step away from the light can become many steps into the darkness.

And when others begin following the wanderer, the wandering can continue from generation to generation.

GROUPS DESIGNED FOR THE WANDERER

This is the danger of the splintering process.

Each new generation of organizations can become a place for those who have wandered from a previous organization.

A person leaves one group and finds another.

They disagree with one minister and find another minister.

They become dissatisfied with one administration and establish another administration.

They may find people who agree with them more closely.

They may find a congregation where they feel more comfortable.

They may even find an organization that teaches many of the same doctrines they learned in the Worldwide Church of God.

But has the fundamental question been answered?

Have they returned to where they first departed?

Or have they merely found another place to remain while wandering?

A group may be established because its founders disagreed with the group from which they separated.

But that earlier group may itself have been established because its founders disagreed with another group.

And that organization may have originated from still another separation.

Thus, with each generation, the question increasingly becomes what one group believes in comparison with another.

Yet where is the question of what Jesus Christ established?

Where is the foundation?

Where is the original building site?

Where is the trunk of the tree?

The wanderer can spend an entire lifetime moving from one camp to another without ever returning to the clearing.

The existence of another camp does not mean the wanderer has found the way home.

And the fact that a group possesses certain truths does not automatically mean that it is following the direction in which Jesus Christ is leading His Church.

After all, the person who first stepped away from the lantern did not immediately forget everything he had learned.

He remembered the guide.

He remembered the light.

He remembered portions of the path.

But remembering the light is not the same as following it.

Neither is teaching about the light the same as returning to it.

THE TREE AND ITS BRANCHES

Jesus Christ declared:

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.”

— John 15:1

And again:

“I am the vine, ye are the branches.”

— John 15:5

Notice what Christ did not say.

He did not tell the branches to establish independent trunks.

He did not instruct them to separate themselves and plant new vines whenever difficulties arose.

He commanded them to abide in Him.

A branch receives its life through its connection to the vine.

Once separated, it may retain its appearance for a time.

Its leaves may remain green.

Its wood may remain strong.

It may even appear healthy to someone who does not recognize that it has been severed.

But what happens with time?

The leaves begin to wither.

The branch dries.

And eventually it is gathered.

Christ warned:

“If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.”

— John 15:6

Now consider the branches that have been pruned away from a tree.

Some fall directly beneath the tree.

Others are carried farther away.

Some are gathered into bundles.

And those bundles may be brought together with other bundles.

Yet no matter how many branches are gathered together, their gathering does not reconnect them to the living trunk.

A bundle of branches is not a living tree.

Neither does a larger bundle become a tree simply because more branches have joined it.

The question is not how many branches are together.

The question is whether they are abiding in the true vine.

This is not to say that every individual attending a scattered organization has been cut off spiritually from Jesus Christ.

God knows those who are His.

But it is a warning against confusing organizational membership with spiritual attachment to Christ.

And it is a warning against assuming that gathering together apart from the original foundation is the same thing as returning to it.

HOW MANY FOUNDATIONS HAVE BEEN LAID?

The Apostle Paul wrote:

“For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”

— 1 Corinthians 3:11

Jesus Christ is the foundation.

Herbert W. Armstrong continually directed attention to the fact that Christ is the living Head of His Church.

The Worldwide Church of God was not merely a human association established around a particular minister.

It was the Church through which Christ was carrying out His Work in this modern age.

Mr. Armstrong distinguished the spiritual organism—the Church of God—from the physical corporate organizations used to conduct its activities.

The corporation was not the Church.

The buildings were not the Church.

The administrative machinery was not the Church.

The Church was the spiritual Body of Jesus Christ.

And Jesus Christ did not die when Herbert W. Armstrong died.

Neither did His Church cease to exist.

Christ declared:

“I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

— Matthew 16:18

Notice the words:

I WILL BUILD MY CHURCH.

Christ did not say He would continually abandon one Church and establish another whenever men disagreed.

He did not say His Church would cease to exist upon the death of a human leader.

He said He would build His Church.

Now consider the construction site.

Suppose a great building is under construction.

The foundation has been laid.

The plans have been provided.

The workers have been called.

Materials have been assembled.

The building is rising.

Then some workers leave the construction site.

They carry their tools elsewhere.

They establish another site.

Some take copies of the original plans.

Others take materials that had been prepared for the original building.

They begin constructing something of their own.

Later, some of those workers disagree and leave again.

They establish still another construction site.

And then another.

Eventually, there are construction sites scattered throughout the region.

Each may claim to be continuing the original construction.

Each may possess portions of the original plans.

Each may employ workers who were once involved in the original building.

But here is the question:

Did the Master Builder authorize the abandonment of His building site?

And where is the building He began?

The Apostle Paul wrote:

“Ye are God’s building.”

— 1 Corinthians 3:9

God is not asking His people to establish competing construction projects.

He is building His spiritual Temple.

The question is whether we are submitting ourselves to His construction or attempting to build according to our own arrangements.

THE WANDERING GENERATIONS

There is another danger that becomes more serious with the passing of time.

The first generation of those who separated from the Worldwide Church of God remembered where they had been.

They remembered the congregations.

They remembered the Work.

They remembered the broadcasts, the publications, the Feast sites, the instruction, and the administration through which they had been taught.

They knew the name Worldwide Church of God.

They knew Herbert W. Armstrong.

They knew what they had left.

But what about the next generation?

Some were born into the first generation of splinter organizations.

They never personally experienced the Worldwide Church of God as it had existed under Mr. Armstrong.

Their understanding of that Church came through what others told them.

Then another generation was born.

And another.

Some now know only the organization in which they were raised.

Others know only the disagreements that produced their particular group.

To them, their organization’s beginning may appear to be the beginning of their spiritual history.

They may be taught about the Worldwide Church of God as something that existed long ago.

Perhaps as a predecessor.

Perhaps as an organization that failed.

Perhaps as a Church that came to an end.

But if Jesus Christ promised that His Church would never be destroyed, how could His spiritual Body have ceased to exist?

The physical corporation could change. The administration could change. Men could depart. But the spiritual Body of Jesus Christ did not cease to exist.

And so the danger increases with each generation.

A child born several generations into the splintering process may never have personally taken a step away from the original clearing.

They were born in the forest.

They learned to recognize the camp as home.

They may never have seen the clearing.

But the light still exists.

And the call to return is not limited to those who personally remember where the first departure occurred.

THE WANDERER MUST RECOGNIZE WHERE HE IS

There is a difference between being scattered and choosing to wander.

God’s people have experienced scattering.

Christ warned that the sheep would be scattered.

But being scattered does not mean that the sheep should become content with remaining scattered.

Neither does it mean that each scattered group should establish its own permanent identity apart from the Body to which it belongs.

A sheep that has wandered from the flock needs to return to the Shepherd.

It does not need to find another wandering sheep and establish a separate flock.

Jesus Christ said:

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”

— John 10:27

Whose voice are we following?

The voice of a particular minister?

The voice of an organization?

The voice of those with whom we agree?

Or the voice of Jesus Christ?

This question reaches beyond organizational names.

It reaches into the heart.

A person can defend the doctrines taught by Herbert W. Armstrong while refusing to examine whether he has wandered from the spiritual direction in which Christ was leading His Church.

Another can repeatedly speak of unity while insisting that everyone must first unite under his particular administration.

Still another can speak of returning to the truth while refusing to return to the foundation.

But Christ does not call His people to follow a succession of human camps.

He calls them to follow Him.

REMEMBER FROM WHERE THOU ART FALLEN

To the Church at Ephesus, Jesus Christ declared:

“Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works.”

— Revelation 2:5

Notice the instruction.

REMEMBER.

Remember from where you have fallen.

Not merely where you are standing today.

Not merely the last group you attended.

Not merely the most recent disagreement.

But from where the departure began.

Then Christ commands:

REPENT.

And then:

DO THE FIRST WORKS.

This is not a command to create another organization.

It is a command to return.

Return to the beginning.

Return to the foundation.

Return to the first works.

Return to the spiritual relationship with Jesus Christ from which the departure occurred.

For the scattered membership of the Worldwide Church of God, this raises a serious question.

Have we been trying to repair each new organizational separation without addressing the original departure?

Have we been attempting to solve the problems of the second, third, and fourth generations while refusing to examine the first step?

How can the wanderer find the way home if he refuses to acknowledge where he first left the path?

THE CALL TO RETURN TO PHILADELPHIA

Jesus Christ addressed the Church at Philadelphia:

“I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.”

— Revelation 3:8

Philadelphia was not identified by the size of its physical organization.

Christ spoke of its works.

Its little strength.

Its faithfulness to His Word.

Its refusal to deny His name.

And He spoke of an open door.

This was the era through which Jesus Christ raised up Herbert W. Armstrong to proclaim the Gospel of the Kingdom of God to the world.

But Philadelphia was never merely a corporate name.

It was a spiritual condition.

It was an era of God’s Church.

And the call to return to Philadelphia is not a call to invent another corporation bearing the name Philadelphia.

Neither is it a call to follow a man who claims to have replaced the Apostle through whom Christ restored the truths that had been lost.

It is a call to return to Jesus Christ, to the foundation, to the truth, to the first works, and to the spiritual Body that He established and continued to build.

It is a call to stop wandering.

A call to stop creating additional steps away from the original path.

A call to recognize that the answer to division is not another division.

And that the answer to scattering is not the permanent establishment of separate camps.

THE SYNAGOGUE OF SATAN AND THOSE WHO COME OUT

There is also a remarkable promise in Christ’s message to Philadelphia.

“Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.”

— Revelation 3:9

Notice the action Christ promises.

I WILL MAKE THEM TO COME.

Those who have been outside are brought to come.

Those who have claimed an identity that was not theirs are brought to acknowledge where Christ has placed His love.

The emphasis is upon what Christ Himself will accomplish.

Not what a corporation can compel.

Not what a minister can demand.

Not what human persuasion can manufacture.

Christ says, I WILL MAKE THEM.

And the result is that they come and worship, recognizing where Christ has placed His love.

For those who have wandered, this promise directs attention away from the multiplication of competing organizations and toward the work Christ Himself is accomplishing.

The answer is not for one splinter group to conquer another.

The answer is not for one corporate administration to absorb all the others.

The answer is for those who have wandered to respond to the One who calls them.

Jesus Christ.

HE SHALL GO NO MORE OUT

There is another promise that deserves careful consideration.

To Philadelphia, Christ says:

“Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out.”

— Revelation 3:12

HE SHALL GO NO MORE OUT.

Consider those words in relation to the wanderer.

How many times have people gone out?

How many separations have occurred?

How many new groups have emerged?

How many members have spent years moving from one organization to another?

And how many have become weary of wandering?

Christ promises the overcomer a permanent place as a pillar in the Temple of God.

A pillar is not something that wanders from one construction site to another.

It is established.

It is placed.

It supports the structure in which it belongs.

It remains.

Christ’s promise reaches its ultimate fulfillment in the Kingdom of God, but its lesson should stir us now.

God is not preparing His people for endless wandering.

He is preparing them for permanence in His Family.

For a place in His Temple.

For unity in His spiritual Body.

No more going out.

What a wonderful promise for those who have spent so long wandering!

THE LIGHT CONTINUES ON

Return once more to Herbert W. Armstrong’s illustration of the dark forest.

The guide continues along the path.

The lantern continues shining.

The way out of the darkness remains before him.

But the person who stepped away has lost sight of the light.

And now, instead of following the guide, he is attempting to find his own way.

This is an important distinction.

The guide did not abandon the path.

The person departed from it.

Mr. Armstrong explained that God’s Spirit leads His people progressively into greater truth.

He emphasized that the danger arises when someone rejects a point of truth and refuses to repent.

The light continues forward.

But the person who has turned aside begins wandering in other directions.

Now imagine generations of people following those who have already wandered.

They may sincerely believe they are moving toward the light.

They may be following leaders who themselves believe they know the way.

They may possess many of the truths originally taught.

Yet the question remains:

Are they following the light, or are they following someone who once followed it?

Jesus Christ said:

“I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”

— John 8:12

The light is Jesus Christ.

And His Spirit leads us into truth.

Men have moved.

Organizations have changed.

Generations have passed.

But Jesus Christ remains.

“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.”

— Hebrews 13:8

The way back is not found by continuing farther into the forest.

It is found through repentance and returning to the truth.

HOW MANY STEPS AWAY ARE YOU?

This question is not intended to condemn those who have been scattered.

It is intended to awaken them.

Perhaps you were part of the Worldwide Church of God before the scattering.

Perhaps you joined one of the first groups that separated.

Perhaps you later moved into another organization.

Perhaps you have passed through several.

Or perhaps you were born into one of the later generations and have never known anything else.

Whatever your circumstances, the question remains:

How many steps away from the foundation are you?

Not how many steps away from a corporation.

Not how many steps away from a particular minister.

Not how many steps away from the organization whose teachings you currently accept.

But how many steps away from the spiritual foundation upon which Jesus Christ has been building His Church?