A Letter of Notice

Unto those who are now occupying the various offices, in what was one time known as the Church of God and later as the Church of God of Prophecy, I now write as follows:  General Officials; Field Ministers; General Secretaries; State Overseers; District Overseers; and all others who hold offices that may be found Scriptural.  Since said organization has boldly and arrogantly renounced the inherent authority of the Anointed leader and accepted its organized body known as the 'General Assembly' as the voice of authority; I, by virtue of my office, with the apostles and leader in our General Assembly have taken a stand to save the Church from being forever buried in the rubbish of man-made law and false doctrines which are contrary to the Bible.  

With the decision you have apparently made in your recent General Assembly to stick with those who have erred from Theocratic Government and have openly declared your support to such; I, as Chief Bishop of the Church of God, must declare such spiritual offices as you may hold, Vacant.

The Church of God is now being reconstructed under a more 'perfect pattern' which was left by our Lord Jesus Christ such as restoring the full ministry to the Church as recorded by Paul.  The Church will now have Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and Teachers instead of being limited to just Evangelists as has been the practice.

Following, I will show by what authority this is done and then it will face you in the judgment::  A. J. Tomlinson declared, in 1923, that the Church of God was literally destroyed by their 'Constitution' (Cyclopedic Index, Page 153, Paragraph 1).  "In this conference it was acknowledged that the constitution just as literally destroyed the Church of God as the Nicean Creed destroyed it in the year 325, and the only thing left for us to do was to repudiate the constitution and every other action of past Assemblies that caused the departure from the faith and true Bible principles and by God's permission and help receive ourselves back into the Church of God under Bible rule and government..."

The following words will definitely show what he considered the death dealing weapon of the constitution which destroyed the Church: (Cyclopedic Index, Page 153, Paragraphs 4, 5 and 6).  "Certain of the Elders refused to attend the council but boldly declared their allegiance to that ORGANIZED BODY provided for in their 'constitution' under the same of 'General Assembly' of The Churches of God, TO BE the DICTATOR of the teachings and principles of the Church of God laws and government.."  "...Elders had renounced the Church of God and had accepted the GENERAL ASSEMBLY with its constitutions as their faith and practice INSTEAD of God's Government..."  "...and by their here-say, in insisting that they, as members of the 'OFFICIAL ASSEMBLY' created by their constitution, were the law makers of the Church of God..."

This same death dealing weapon was adapted AGAIN in 1948 and the same thing happened to the Church again.

From that time I tried, unsuccessfully, to replace the authority where it belonged, but was eventually rebuked for doing so.  I could do no more but save the Church!  The following words show that the same thing was again adapted: (Cyclopedic Index, Page 433, Paragraph 2.), "...As the GENERAL ASSEMBLY is the HIGHEST AUTHORITY in the Church."  The B.T.C. lessons, Volume 2, Page 52, Paragraph 23, 24 make the GENERAL ASSEMBLY the dictator of all The Churches of God laws and practices.

At any time those who are dismissed desiring to be restored to said ministry, we will be glad to hear from them and give it the necessary consideration,

Yours Very Truly,

Chief Bishop of The Church of God

Grady R. Kent.

 

Witness:  Elford N. Collins

Witness:  Leroy W. Fields

 

* Article Written By:  The Late Grady R. Kent, St. John II, Chief Bishop of The Church of God, 1957-1964. This sermon was taken from The Vision Speaks, Volume 1 : Number 6 : November 1957.

All grammatical and typographical errors have been corrected except for direct quotations from the Author.  Thought content of said article has not been changed.