By Jeff Redington
If this group was, and is so bad, why did you stay in there for so long?

by Jeff Redington

Also read the article by Forum Member Picker. Why not leave the Restoration?

This is an honest question, asked by one of our readers.

I think others may think the same thing.

If this group is that terrible, then why would people stay in there?


This is exactly one of the reasons they are so bad. The simple truth is they are a "Mind Control Cult." What this means is they take good, honest, loving, caring, sincere, polite, Christian people, who have maybe recently gone through some hard times, and prey on their vulnerability. Maybe the group you are in seems to be unchanging, the same old thing, maybe not growing. Maybe a group of people or a congregation has mis-used you in some way, that cannot seem to be resolved. Many things can happen to a person and make them somewhat naive concerning this group.

So you believe in the "Church of God" way. You may have lived it, and believed it from youth, or even as a child. You really think it is right. You are not taught what goes on when split's happen, or that most of the folks doing these splits, did not receive the good counsel offered them, by the body of ministers in their former group. Danny Layne took on the whole of the Church of God (Guthrie) and they told him he would have to only preach in his local congregation, he was not allowed to go about the whole country with his way of doing things, and his current attitude, saying "...that the whole Church of God (Guthrie) was compromised." To him this was not exceptable. He eventually left with a following of people.

So many times people, like myself, are close associates to the happenings that lead to new movements. I was married by one of the ministers that lead this rebellion against the "compromisers". We were first on one side of this because of association, then on the other because we were being taught that this was not truth. When it came down to it, we viewed the Guthrie movement as a family affair, we had not been raised in the group, and so did not fit in. It seemed we would never be accepted by them.

So in such dis-associations there is always much damage done, to faith, hope, and love.
We were dissatisfied with the Guthrie group, and had left twice, because of so many things. One of the main reasons I will cover next.

When you as a group, teach very high standards, which no one lives, and it is only past doctrine. What you should do at that time, is lessen your standard or doctrine, to what you as a group actually believe. If you don't, the following will keep happening. Conscientious Christians will observe your truth, and examine your doctrine, then examine your life, and your ministry. When they see you are not living up to all that high preaching, they will call it, "Compromise", and then will break off another group of good people trying to live all that high doctrine.

So for folks like us who believed what we were taught, we wanted to find someone who lived it.
Then along came a group, who when we joined, claimed to be living it. They appeared to have eliminated the flaws of the former group and come out with great force to live the very things we had been taught. We went to a meeting and everyone was up and in the chapel at 7:30AM and that was impressive. They sang of unity, you might know the song, "...as sweet strands of heavenly music blend in one harmonious sound, so the members of Christ body, dwell in blessed unity". We were hooked. It was beautiful. It was amazing. So we got right in and did not plan on living different for the rest of our lives. In fact the very night we had to leave this group, as we walked to meeting, we had no idea that we would ever live any different.

We were happily living for God, we loved him with all our hearts, we would give our lives for him, and we were active trying to get others into the movement. In some cases we succeeded, I am sorry now to say.

So the question still is there, what about all this stuff going on? How could we stay there knowing all this was going on?

Here is the problem, unless you are on the receiving end of this ministry, your life in general can be fairly good. If you are not making waves, and getting noticed, you may fly under their abusive side for years. If your family is fairly healthy you may not get into any trouble with their "healing" doctrine.

This was our case, until our last year and a half, when we started to say, "...wjat is going on?" What started the ball rolling against us, we did not believe in their Church School idea's, and felt strongly that we should continue home schooling our children as we had been doing. Another thing, the people who wanted to do this school had no children themselves, and had once been brought to court for a child abuse allegation. As well they were not nice to our children. We decided this was best for our family.

So for 7 or more years after leaving Guthrie and going with this new way, we had not gotten in trouble in general. We were "Good" saints and loved by many inside and outside the group. But now we had gone against what the local ministry wanted to do, so we are now the bad people.
So for the last year and a half we were scrutinized so closely by our pastor, and the local ministry, I say that we had to live the life of Daniel in order to not get in trouble. We had to be so careful, for we knew that as soon as we tripped up on even one of their doctrines or teachings, they were going to "crucify" us. It took them a year and a half, they finally used our children's friends to spy on us. We had been talking to our best friends in the group about the problems in the congregation, and the main problem at the time, this pastor of ours, who was out to get us.
Well that was it, within a week we were put into a situation where we could no longer attend, we were asked to tell a lie about our experience and told that we must make a public apology, and repent, and so forth. Only because we questioned why, and wondered what was going on.

I think by the time we are done with this web site, we may fill a book.

So that is some of the long story, the short is, when in the group your are not allowed to collaborate with other families about information. You are not allowed to collaborate with other congregations. You are segregated from your own wife in many cases. She gets her counsel from the pastor, not you. Children are counseled aside from the parents, used against the parent when needed.
Your information is very limited. You don't know what is going on. You are kept in the dark when sexual immoral things are goings on. All your information is that this is the Church of the Living God. God has a pure ministry. They tell you they are the pure ministry. "Don't you go against us, we are God ministers. We are the one true Church".

You see, all this power is leveraged against you, used to control your mind, that you are nothing, and you will obey us. They teach that your highest priority is the Church. And on the surface this seems right. They teach that if you go into a counseling session with one of their ministers, and he or she tells you to do something, and you do not obey, you will be like Ananias and Sapphira in Acts and be lost forever.

You see, we thought this was the only way, and we were so scared to leave, all the world was lost and going to hell. We were the only ones. We were gripped with a fear of the outside world, and it totally scared us nearly to numbness, to think of what would happen if we ever left. Oh yes they use scare tactics.

So even when things get bad, you are too scared to leave. Why? Because they have gotten ahold of your mind. They have taught you to fear them, and not God.

They are sheep on the outside, but don't you get on their bad side, they will tear you to pieces.

Note: There are many who have left this group who are still in fear of them, and are scared to even sign their name on the letters, which they send to us. Why? The fear of these people has swept across the world. They will cut you off from your relatives and never let you see them again, so many are to fearful to stand against them.

So it is not an easy question you ask, and you must understand that this group is not just another group, they have transformed over time into a "Mind Control Cult", they take control of your whole life. They cut you off from all other sources of information. They cut you off from all your relationships outside the group, calling them evil. You can only have the group as your family.

It is the blessing of God, if you get thrown out of this group. However for us who have been there, it is the most scary thing we have been through.

There is nearly a terror that will grip the individual who leaves this group. A fear that maybe they are leaving God, and that God himself will strike them down. That maybe they "ARE" on their way to hell.

This for years after we left would pass even my mind, "...maybe it is true?". I would just have to dismiss this. It is not true.

For some this will be to much, they may go crazy, some may kill themselves, this happens when members of cults find out it is all a hoax. Many will have nervous breakdowns, my wife as much as went through one. Others will be bitter for years, and may never get totally over it. Others will die before they ever get out, unless God brings the whole thing down.

A honest Christian can be naive, and trusting. These people take advantage of that. Once you are in the group, they seem to teach all the same things as other Church of God groups, the oneness of Gods people, and so forth, it may even look good. But in the end it is a movement of men, who do not know God, for they do not have his love, they only have the letter of the law (Doctrine).

This is what our web site is about, the fact that these people get control of your mind in subtle ways, which only God can get you out of.

I have for years questioned why God would allow us to stay in this group for over nine years, and around these people for over 19 years. We know all the founders and their history. We know where they come from. We know what they can do. We have been on their good side and on their bad.

All in all I believe the work we are now able to do and understand, is why God allowed us to stay there so long. We have no relatives in there, they have no hold on us. We have no crimes to our history, that are hidden, that they can hold over our heads. We can expose them and they have nothing on us. We lived for God with all our hearts, and that was not good enough for them.

It is enough for God, he loves us and has been so merciful, we are set to the defense of the children of God, who are being so abused by this group.

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