HISTORICAL DETAILS
At a meeting with
Mr. Antion in the spring of 1998 to discuss a critical doctrinal issue, to which
I had submitted a carefully composed yet boldly written treatise, I began in my quest to follow through on the exhortation which is
given to us in Gal. 6:6: ‘Let him who is taught the word communicate to him who teaches in all good things‘. The treatise that I had
submitted was a handwritten exposition of the contradictions which currently exist between our official church policy on marriage
outside the church and that of our current practice. But to my surprise, my boldness in sharing new truth became misconstrued by the
pastor as an expression of an ‘attitude’ problem, insomuch that he was on the verge of threatening to disfellowship me from the church
at the end of our heated discussion. (Rather, he was the one who was heated while I remained calm, hoping he would argue the doctrine
and not any evil intentions on my part.) I apologized for any harshness of diction that may have offended him (though I had edited
the 20-page document numerous times before I approached him, and was especially careful not to offend in word or deed against an ordained
minister of God; 1 Tim. 5:17), but I did not apologize for the thesis. Even he agreed in principle with the logic of my argument that
the church ought not be approving or sanctioning marriages between converted, baptized members and unconverted, unbaptized attendees,
which teaching indeed is in full accordance with that of church policy and of Scripture, though he refused to believe in my final
conclusion that such a covenant constituted sin on the part of the member who enters such a covenant. In this whole matter
Mr. Antion was
to be blamed (as Peter was when he was approached by Paul, who ‘withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed‘; Gal. 2:11);
first, for taking 9 months before finally staging a meeting with me to discuss this high-priority matter (having broken his word about
2 or 3 times, in breaking the ninth commandment) and secondly, for refusing to surrender the right to admit certain exceptions to
the rule of this doctrine, when Scripture and policy revealed that no minister has the right in Christ to do so) and, thirdly, for
not taking this doctrine seriously enough before sanctioning just such a marriage in the church, just a couple of months after I had
broached the subject with him.
The pastor then asked that I re-submit my thesis to the doctrinal committee for review, which
I did in that year, summarizing on one page the basic premises which supported my conclusion. This same one-page summary was then
circulated to certain respected elders in the church for their perusal, for the sake of seeking counsel and for gathering a consensus
of the Spirit, having no unclean, ulterior motives on my part for the purpose of causing offense or division in the church. But I
knew of the risk that I was taking, being well aware of the lukewarm condition of the church today, that many brethren have fallen
prey to the snares of the devil (2 Tim. 2:26), to indifference, to suspicions, to fears, to unbelief, to evil spirits, to evil-speaking,
to pride, to arrogance, to rebellion, to revenge, to self-justification, to self-sufficiency (that is 'I have need of nothing‘, as
it states in Rev. 3:17, ‘to speak to me, to correct me, to lead me, to judge me, to help me, to teach me, to question me, or to answer
me‘), and to a love for independent thinking and opinion. For the most part my doctrinal discovery was not well received, with most
of the discussions with the elders not being able to get past sentence number one (namely, 'sin is the transgression of the law‘,
which shows how backward some of us are). Therefore I did not hold out too much hope for the Council if this was going to be the prevailing
view, but I was prepared for that too since I well know that we are nearing the end of this age, thank God, and that we must take
comfort and hope in Christ--not in men--to restore all righteousness soon, regardless of what men are doing or not doing behind a
desk or podium.
Months passed in ‘98, and with my concerns having come out in the open among several of the influential brethren,
evil words began to circulate that I was causing offense in the church. Not only had I spoken to the aforementioned elders and deacons
in the church about this doctrine, but I had also posed the question to a small number of lay members through informal discussions,
who no doubt were able to make the connection in this matter with me and its recent application in the church. Loose lips added one
to two to get three, and soon I was judged to be judging a brother in the church, contrary to the law of God; in addition to causing
division among the brethren (the question that applies here is ‘What price truth?' But the reply, ‘Well, speak the truth in love‘,
does not mean that we are to be ‘wise like the devil'; blind guides, hypocrites, insincere, deceitful, double-minded, given to flattery,
politically motivated, fearful of men, or lovers of friendship, unity, and acceptance at the expense and sacrifice of biblical truth.
Ask yourself this question: What are you willing to give up to keep the truth of God? In the church, we only cater to the will of
God--not to political compromise--for the end of the age is at hand; praise God. This means that it doesn't matter what you or I think--what
matters is what God thinks). On one occasion when I was absent from church for several weeks, being jobless, penniless, weary, and
distressed, I returned to services to the wonderment of two or three members who had assumed that I had left for another church. It
later began to dawn on me that someone likely had planted a rumour. But I was too tired to be overly troubled by this, not to mention
too grateful to be coming to church.
I missed attending the
UCG feast at Orford in ‘98, having failed to make arrangements with
a number of brethren to accommodate me, so I knew I would have to brace myself over the coming winter, knowing that little movement
was taking place in the spiritual arena. If one puts off critical issues in time, or continues to speak evil of a brother, the day
of Recompense is coming soon (Gal. 5:15, 2 Thess. 1:6, Rom. 2:5-9, Heb. 10:30). When we fight among ourselves in the church, in reality
we do not fight among ourselves or against 'flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the
darkness of this world, and against spiritual wickedness in high places’ (Eph. 6:12). The enemy is not your fellowman--it is Satan.
I had forgotten this for a while when I had strayed away from God.
Time continued to pass, little spiritual progress was made,
Passover ‘99 came and went. One way to judge your standing in Christ is to evaluate your conduct shortly before and after Passover.
If your behaviour is gruff, frivolous, non-chalant, lifeless, cold, fleshly and the same old you, and your speech littered with worldly
and driveling talk, you may have forgotten your old sins were once purged (2 Pet. 1:9). If we do not partake of the Passover worthily,
we will be judged unworthy of His grace and come under His wrath (1 Cor. 11:29-32, Rom. 2:1-6). Thus, today many of the brethren are
falling sick, weak, dull, dying or dead (v30). as Jesus said, 'As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous therefore and repent'
(Rev. 3:19). And balanced budgets, income figures, booklet printing, magazine distribution, TV and radio programs, chat forums, and
dry attendance figures are not ‘progress‘. Godliness with contentment is progress (1 Tim. 6:6). Being perfect with the Father and
Son is progress (Mt. 5:48, Mr. 6:33, Jn. 17:21, 23).
Finally, with little or no prospect of reconciliation in sight, and I becoming
ever more jaded, distressed, and as it were stretched out on a ‘torture rack',
Mr. Antion, to my 'relief', chose the day of Pentecost
to accost me, having approached me with a sense of urgency and foreboding in his voice. Before this, my spirit was in agitation for
part of the day, and I sensed that something was astir as I laboured to rejoice in the Spirit (Rom. 14:17). At that fateful moment
I had been sitting in my usual place in the front row with the service having drawn to a close, leaning forward in my seat and with
Bible in hand, eager for the fellowship of the Spirit, while desperately attempting to jump-start a spiritual conversation with a
fellow brother, who was sitting beside me, spread-legged, dull-faced and unnerved near the disgusting and repulsive scent of urine
that smelled nearby. Friction was in the air but I did my best to ignore it, as I delved into the exciting mysteries of the seventy-weeks
prophecy of Daniel 9.
Mr. Antion arrived at that moment showing some misgiving in his face, as he proceeded to denigrate my already
tainted name by charging me with causing offense to certain brethren, while also insinuating that I was responsible for discouraging
members from attending the church. I sought to defend myself but he pressed. I engaged my defenses again but he continued to press,
without presenting a witness (cowardly refusing to identify even one) or showing me much mercy on his part, His words to me were:
'I'm hearing things about you, Ned...’, ’I know your personality...’, 'You rub people the wrong way...’, 'Your hand gesturing is offensive...’,
‘And I remember your abrasive doctrinal treatise ...’, forgetting that in the latter case I had apologized for any slight of negligence
on my part, whereas he seemed not to refrain from keeping me ever mindful of it, in shaming the gospel of the forgiveness of God through
Christ. I replied that the accusers and witnesses had to be brought forward, as the law of God would have us do (2 Cor. 13:1), and
that I could amply justify my actions by faithfully resorting to the Scriptures (and indeed for several months, I had been carrying
along in my coat pocket a worn, folded sheet of paper on which were written many a scripture, as a defense against any good work of
which I should be accused). But
Mr. Antion ignorantly mocked me for this, blurting out, 'Oh, right, did Jesus walk around thinking
He was going to be accused all the time:?', to which I emphatically replied, 'Yes, to His death:' But I sensed that his heart was
hardened, and his eye evil toward me (for he was putting more faith in evil reports about me, and in his own evil view of me, than
in the credibility of my own defense), as he was on the verge of blowing up at the end, of which emotion I was all too familiar, having
myself a far more violent-tempered father with whom I live. At this point he threatened to disfellowship me again, saying 'Ned, if
I hear any more about you, that you are driving away members from the church, you will be gone, and, also, ’Why do you attend with
us anyway, as there are many other churches like you who like to 'point the finger'? Why don't you attend with them?' Also, in response
to my criticism that a suspension is unjust in the church if the defendant has not been able to receive a proper hearing, he said,
‘Who do you think YOU are, buster:' Any such words beyond the simple ‘yay’ or 'nay' is sin (Mt. 5:37, Mt. 12:36, Ja. 5:12). Needless
to say, when I sought to explain myself from the Scriptures, he did not have the time of day on the holy day to hear me.
Mr.
Antion, in private conversations with me, was wont to speak like a carnal man of the flesh (Rom. 8:1, 5) to the point where it made
me shudder (as I have already shown above, when he said to me, ‘Why do you attend with us?’ Mt. 18:5, 6, Mk. 9:37, Jn. 9, 10), but
I kept quiet to save him embarrassment. On one occasion, I faintly recall a conversation over an obvious point in which I assumed
it would be a matter-of-course that he would agree with me, in which I commented that it was not possible for him as a man to force
a member to act contrary to his will, or to live the life of another member in his place, to which to my amazement he retorted, 'Yes
I can'. It came out of his mouth so glibly and unexpectedly that I barely took notice of it, but afterwards the arrogance of the reply
sank in when at first I did not want to believe it, that such an answer could come out of the mouth of an ordained minister of God.
It seems to me that the bolder some of us become, the worse we become, in not having the grace, mercy or love of God to temper it.
Such words are an affront to the person and authority of Jesus Christ, who is the head of every man (1 Cor. 11:3). I wonder just how
many immature and insecure ministers we have in the Church of God today, who presently are killing their flocks with the sword (Jn.
16:2), or shooting them down with the bow (Rev. 6:2), to do 'service' to God? (Jn. 16:2; this verse is being fulfilled among us in
the church today, and not just among those in the world; those who ‘put you out of the synagogues' are the ones who are in authority
in it.)
On another occasion, just a few weeks prior to the '99 Feast, I had been informed a couple of times by our Toronto office
that Feast assistance had run dry for that year and that there was little or no chance of any becoming available. Even
Mr. Antion had
made the announcement about a month earlier that the budget for festival assistance had become exhausted. But I was still hoping for
about $200 to be spared. I spoke to
Mr. Antion personally just a couple of weeks before the Feast to persuade him to accept my application
for assistance, which he gave me allowance to do, putting me under the assumption that there was a possibility that funds would become
available. (I was aware that they were over budget, but this obviously meant that a few were able to squeeze in.) He faxed me the
form and I was charged a fee for picking it up. After submitting my application to the office and waiting a couple of weeks for a
response, I met him on Atonement and asked him about it. His flat answer was: 'There are no funds; we're completely out'. Then l replied,
'not even a $100 or $200? But he said, 'NO'. So I asked, ‘Why did you have me apply in the first place?’ It appeared to me at the
time that there was deception on his part, in knowing all along that he would not release any funds, yet allowing me to go through
this exercise in futility anyway. Meanwhile it annoys me that, at a time of distress in the church, our chief ministry goes plane-hopping
with church funds from feast site to feast site (during the middle of the Feast) just to keep a speaking schedule, or to sample new
food in a restaurant, or to do more sight-seeing, while putting themselves under the illusion that their all-important 'live, appearances'
are somehow far more indispensable and invaluable to the church than its biblical responsibility to provide for every needy member
to attend. (With the church in such a fractured and dissolute state, unless your purpose is to mend differences, travail with the
brethren, reprove, rebuke and exhort, it is a waste of church funds, as is giving feast assistance to ‘able' transfers; Note ‘own'
in: 1 Tim. 5:8, the misuse of funds in 1 Tim. 5:9-16, and the ministerial charge of 2 Tim. 4:2.) It also troubled me that at the feast
the church donated over $800 to a local food bank, while I was left seeking to scrounge. I even called the treasurer at the U.S. office,
Mr. Kirkpatrick, in the hope he would spare a few ‘tens’ from his budgeted 'thousands’ (from his print, advertising, personal expense,
or entertainment budgets perhaps?) but he was another useless case, giving me the typically cold, heartless, bureaucratic and politically
mushy reply that I'm beginning to expect from many of our business-oriented officers in the church, 'Be warmed and go in peace' (Ja,
2:16). Is it too much for a desperate member who is in need to ask a fellow brother to spare him a $50, $100, or $200, especially
if he requests it as a loan? How would you feel if even a bank refused to give you this amount? Is it not evil and faithless in the
sight of God when one shuts up his heart and hand from giving? (Ja. 2:14-17) Or will you tell Jesus Christ that this is acceptable?
‘Whoso has this world's goods and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his bowels (thus many of us have been cursed in their bowels
with cancer and other diseases), how dwells the love of God in him?' (1 Jn. 3:17)
After the tongue lashing on Pentecost, I began
to realize the devil was seeking to expel me, which I had grieved about for a time well in advance (not about the possibility of being
excommunicated, as that would be a worthy goal if it were for the glory of God, but about being misunderstood, misinterpreted, despised,
stifled to a state of inertia, falsely accused, evil spoken of, judged as unclean and unworthy of the fellowship, when a godly reaction
and not a carnal one was my hope; Jude 14-15), expecting that a backlash was inevitable as a result of the seeds I had sown. As a
believer in Christ I sow good seed-not the seed of the devil (Mt. 13:27-28, 39).
I knew immediately that for my sake and for
the sake of the church I quickly had to get this matter settled, as Christ would have me to do (Mt. 5:23-26), and to bring in all
accusers and witnesses together to attain a godly and necessary reconciliation, for reconciliation is of God (2 Cor. 5:18-19). Yet
this was delayed by
Mr. Antion time and time again, from the day of Pentecost ‘99, on which he threatened to expel me, until the feast
of ‘99, just as it was from the moment I sought his counsel in the matter of the aforementioned doctrinal issue, which turned out
to be an even longer delay (spanning about nine months), and involving a few broken appointments on his part. It was a strain on my
spirit as I agonized over the matter. The pastor did arrange one meeting about 3 or 4 weeks in advance of the scheduled date but I
was not able to attend, as I was either out of gas for my car and/or in a too weary and mentally-distressed state to attend. He also
may have tried to arrange another meeting, but it perpetually seemed as if he was trying to find me when I was not present, while
I was seeking him when he was just too busy (with 'doing the work', I suppose, while forgetting that the 'real work' is described
in Jn. 6:29; therefore if that 'real work’ is to believe in Christ why am I being dissuaded from believing in Him and in His power
to reconcile, when
Mr. Antion is behaving in this way?). So it was left to reek in the cesspool of indigence and inertia, which is
the way many of us seem to like it, lest our shame, fear and ignorance be exposed, in preferring to avoid controversy and weighty
issues of the Spirit (Mt. 23:23). This reminded me of the publicized ‘98 incident involving the
Minneapolis church, in which certain
members were acting incorrigibly toward any possible reconciliation with the ministry. Yet the Council agreed to stage a meeting with
a delegation that was being sent from
Milford, with
Mr. Antion being one of those sent. At that meeting they spent about 10 hours,
almost the entire day, pleading for these rebels to return, to see their need to submit, and to open their eyes to the folly of their
ways. When I first heard this announced, I just shook my head and thought, ‘What a pathetic waste of time!' If one is seeking to reconcile
two parties, he should require no more than an hour or so before he ought to get up and leave. He should not be begging, pleading,
articulating, pontificating, lecturing, psycho-babbling, diplomatizinq, eternally counseling or cajoling rebels to return to church,
especially when they show no sign of submission anyway. Meanwhile; as a loyal member of the church and as a regular attendee, I could
not even arrange a prompt and suitable meeting with my own pastor (who fully agreed to travel afar to Minneapolis on 'church business',
in bowing to the request of the office and Council, to both his employer and colleagues, to mediate a hopeless reconciliation) in
order to clear my name of false accusations, much less respond to them. And I am a supporter of the work of
UCG. Yet I am not a 'denominational’
or 'splinter group’ idolater, as some are.
It became obvious to me that
Mr. Antion was just too busy 'doing the work‘, too busy
for a man who later would be selected to head the new
Bible Center to attend to a critical doctrinal matter with me, too busy to exonerate
a fellow brother from unjust blame, too busy to investigate a possible ‘demon’ in his pastoral fold who was wreaking havoc with church
unity, too busy on Sabbath mornings, too busy on Sabbath afternoons (but not too busy to take a round trip flight on a double-holy
day weekend to visit only a handful of members), and too busy rolling out the red carpet for fellow Council member,
Victor Kubik,
who would be arriving one Sabbath weekend for us to hear yet another political seminar on the lessons of the war in Kosova, to a spindly,
mailing list audience of just thirteen people! And later justifying it as a ‘success'. Some of us in our attempt to flatter God and
to save Him embarrassment will go to any length just to Justify any work we do as a 'success', while repressing the glaring evidence
at mass deception, unbelief, disunity, lukewarmness and lawlessness in our midst, which has befallen many of our members in many parts
of the globe, in fulfillment of 2 Thess. 2:3 (A minister can enjoy the sound of his preaching and piping all he wants, as per Lk.
7:32, but the brethren are not with him; otherwise they would follow; witness the size of constituents in a breakup). Meanwhile, Satan
continues his deceptive work of sowing seeds of discord, suspicion, unbelief, evil speaking, lying (yes, lying.), filthy communication,
blasphemies, false accusations, distortions, envyings, jealousies, discontentment, bitterness, wrath, anger, malice, and the 'evil
eye’ (Mk. 7:22). Your eye is 'evil’ toward your brother when you consider him unworthy of your fellowship, your church, and your God,
even though he has not been proven guilty of offense. Your eye is evil toward your brother when you take from gossip your source of
the true image of that person. Your eye is evil toward your brother when you hold him unforgivably guilty of a sin he has not committed.
Your eye is evil toward your brother when you make him ‘anathema‘, accursed, or an excommunicate from Christ (Gal. 1:8-9), and unworthy
of the fellowship of your right hand (Gal. 2:9). Such kind shun from taking their dark deeds and words to the light (Jn. 3:19-21).
When,
on October 16, 1999, just days after the Feast had ended (and what did I tell you about behaviour at feast time?), and in the heat
of answering irrelevant questions being directed at me, and having the sense that I was under interrogation by my own pastor, I announced,
in response to
Mr. Antion’s decision to disfellowship me, that I would be taking this matter to both the U.S. and Canadian councils,
his stoic reaction was one of not being perturbed. I had informed him previously on Pentecost of the same course of action I intended
to take if he was intent upon following through with his threat. But on this occasion his response was different from that of four
months earlier. On Pentecost, he responded with the blank, pensive look of one who seemed in fear of his judgment being overturned
by the Council. On this day, with sins mounting and pride elevating, his look was one of smug and arrogant confidence.
Mr. Antion's stunning
reply to me was: ‘Ned..., you can take this higher up if you want, but it won’t go anywhere‘. I perked up with the reply: 'Higher
up? If it goes up to Christ, He'll justify me'. I sensed that the devil was about to cast me out.
Also, on October 16th, a number
of other pointless, irrelevant and despicable thoughts were to emerge from
Mr. Antion's mouth, such as, 'Have you told members that
you know who the two witnesses are?' (to which I responded within, ‘What does that have to do with the false accusations against me?’
And, besides, wouldn't anyone want to know this anyway?) and, ‘(Man's Name Removed) told me that you asked him for money at the Feast;
is that true?’ (as if it were a sin to ask a brother for help, when a careful examination of Deut. 14, 16, Neh. 5 and Lk. 6:30, 34-35
makes it incumbent upon every member in the church to see to that very obligation) and, ‘How many other people at the Feast did you
ask for money' (as if it were a sin for a poor member who was spending $250 in Feast tithe and $550 of his ONLY SAVINGS to ask for
just $50 more; which was in stark contrast to
Mr. Antion's genuine concern of only two years ago, when he asked me at that time, 'Ned...,
have you got enough money for the Feast?... Are you sure?’). After he had asked this question he tempted me again saying, 'Are you
going to lie here?’ Afterward, he made these conclusions: ‘Ned..., you just don't fit in with
United..., you can find another church
that's your type...’ (which had me wondering for a moment just what constituted his 'type'; and 'you don't fit in’ were the actual
words he used, which had me smelling a 'Pharisee'). At this time he even criticized the submission of suggestions I made for the improvement
of worship activities at the Feast, which I made with the hope of making the Feast more of a devoted place of worship, of collective
prayer, of spiritual ministry, of hymn singing, of music playing, of scriptural discussion and of informal fellowship, wherein the
candles are always lit and the doors never close till late (rather than one in which our celebrations more closely resemble that of
a worldly and secular holiday, where our main objective is to herd the brethren into and out of services, from one restaurant to another,
from one tourist attraction to another, or from one vain party or listless seminar to another). But
Mr. Antion's worst and most offensive
statement to me was: ‘If one does not work, he should not go to the Feast' (which was a satanic distortion of 2 Thess. 3:10, similar
to the devil's perversion of Scripture in Mt. 4:6), which I believed to be a reprehensible, subtle and merciless allusion to my status
as an unemployed member of the church, whereupon I picked up my Bible and left, knowing that such a remark could only have come from
the devil, and that I was dealing with an unreasonable person in a defiled place (with Mr. Kearse showing full complicity by not saying
a word, thus bearing false witness before Christ), remarking at the last that ‘We will not let Satan get the upper hand in this;’
SUBMISSION
OF CHARGE
I urge the Council of Elders to judge righteously (Pr. 31:9),
for not only have I not been judged according to the law in the matter, but I have been commanded to be smitten (Acts 23:3; tupto,
'pummelled‘) contrary to it.
It's time to heal relationships, and come back to loving each
other, even if we don't all see everything exactly the same. We made Ned's appeal available to the church, according to Matthew 18:15-17
as God instructs. It doesn't matter to us which organization you are in, if you have something to take to the church, send it here,
if it is too long to print, we will make it available to the church. If you want to apologize to someone and are unable to, because
you are cut off from that person, send it here, we will take it to the church. If you are in the ministry and have something to say
in your defense, or an apology, send it here.
Darwin and I can't get you back into your fellowships or anything like that, but
we can try to put to rest some of those nasty rumors which people have a tendency to believe since they are usually not allowed to
hear a persons defense before they are thrown out or their reason for leaving a fellowship. We sincerely want to make this option
of taking it to the church available to anyone who wants to do this, in an attempt to heal relationships between people and families.
We know that many will say, ‘Let God take care of it‘. Quite frankly, God did take care of it. When God made man and woman, He made
them complete with a brain. Then God instructed people through His word the Bible. God left very clear instructions on how to reconcile
relationships with each other. God's instruction on that subject is found in Matthew 18:15-17. So God did take care of it, and even
left us a part that we must do.
