| (Copyright 02-16-2025) by Dave Rothwell (St. Joseph, Missouri) |
|---|
| Dear Laura, I want you to know that I appreciate the work that you do to publish the Church of God Messenger, and I am sure your heart is in the right place, but I am writing to express my dismay at your editorial comments on Dwight Fleming’s article about the Passover. Although I do not agree with all of Dwight’s assertions or conclusions, I cannot support the practice of public, personal attacks on someone for their beliefs. It’s one thing to post a rebuttal, but your comments struck me as harsh and vicious. It seems sadly ironic to me that it was at this meal — the very meal in question — that Jesus said, “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, that you have love one to another.” I believe that having and showing love for each other far outweighs whether we have a correct understanding of the events leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion. Sincerely, Dave Rothwell The commentary from February 15, 2025, which he is referring to: Hi Everyone, Passover is coming up and according to Dwight Fleming many people are confused about when to keep the Passover. Yes, we pulled his article apart because it is full of lies. Sorry, there is no other nice way to put that. I suggest that everyone read it. The black ink is what Dwight wrote, Darwin’s is in purple ink and mine is in red ink. You can’t take one scripture that says, “The Lord’s Supper” and build an entire doctrine around it. The scripture where it is used in the bible does not tell us that Passover was replaced with “The Lord’s Supper” nor does it say anything about changing the day of Passover or replacing the name of Passover with the name “The Lord’s Supper.” 1Co 11:20 When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord’s supper. If you are confused about what day to keep Passover, that confusion comes from Satan and not from God. When you mostly go to secular material to study the Passover you will become very confused and that is what Satan wants. If you study Passover from the bible and look at the meanings of the Hebrew words and look at all the scriptures in regard to the Passover, you will not be confused as to when the Passover is and what it entails. There are actually several very clear scriptures in regard to Passover so there should not be any confusion among God’s elect. Dwight put a sermon link at the end of his article from a secular source talking I guess about the lord’s supper. At the very end in my last editor’s note we have included a sermon link by William Dankenbring that Darwin found on the internet. William Dankenbring died in 2017 and when he was yet alive we did get quite a bit of his material for a while. We didn’t always agree with everything he wrote but in regard to the Passover in this sermon he is right on and he uses good sources for what he says and explains how people go to secular works written by people that do not have God’s Holy Spirit. He shows how these people are all mixed up in what they say. I believe it is about an hour and fifteen minutes. For those who do not know who William Dankenbring was, he was a minister in the Worldwide Church of God at one point in time. He also attended Ambassador College. Worldwide Church of God was a good thing when they taught the right thing from scripture but when they taught the wrong thing people just glommed onto it like it was the whole truth and nothing but the truth even when it was not the truth. You have to study from scripture and not from secular material. Once you understand what scripture says then use other materials if you want but make sure it is proven materials and not a bunch of garbage that someone just threw together to try to explain something they did not understand. Dwight has no understanding of when most of the Holy Days are to be kept and he seems to believe that Mose’s wrote the law when in reality God wrote the law and told Mose’s to teach it to others and to write it down. As God’s elect, we are to teach the law of God and if we don’t understand it ourselves then are we the elect and should we be teaching anything to anyone? The article referred to here is called “Passover Confusion” by Dwight Fleming Remember that if you have a prayer request or a time dated article to please mark it urgent in the subject line otherwise they just go unread into a folder waiting for their turn to be printed. Please pray for our brethren in Kenya, Israel and all around the world. Even though some of us have peace right now, others do not. Pray for Donald Trump and His Family, that they may be safe during these trying times. Also pray for those who have lost homes and family members and friends in the California wildfires. Again, we are grateful to all the people who contribute to this newsletter. Hope you all have a happy Sabbath, (Written by Laura) Editor’s Note: Since you don’t specifically state which part of my commentary you had a problem with, it is hard to see exactly which part of my commentary you had a problem with. With that said, I have the highest regard for Dwight Fleming. I believe he is a great writer especially when he writes about the things he does understand. Dwight has sent other articles here about the Holy Days and he clearly does not understand that the Holy Days are part of God’s Law, which is not Moses Law. If a person does not understand the subject matter on any issue, he/she should not be writing (teaching) about it. Christ’s definition of love is as follows: Joh 14:15 If ye love me, keep my commandments. And in Romans: Rom 13:8 Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. Right after this scripture the commandments are listed. So, love has everything to do with keeping the law of God. Then you have these scriptures about public rebuke: 1Ti 5:20 Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear. The following was on the internet, and I couldn’t have said it better if I had tried: Proverbs 27:5-6: This passage states, “Open rebuke is better than hidden love; faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy”. This proverb suggests that while love is important, open and honest rebuke can be a more beneficial expression of care, even if it is initially painful. The wounds of a friend, in this context, can refer to the discomfort of being rebuked, but the intent is to help the person grow and avoid harm. I want Dwight to make it into the kingdom with the first resurrection but if he keeps treating the keeping of the Holy Days as he does it isn’t going to be because no one has tried to warn him. In my opinion he treats the keeping of the Holy Days as if it is a joke of some kind. Dwight has a great sense of humor but there are certain things that no one should joke about. The number one reason why God got so mad at and punished His own people was because of Sabbath breaking. That includes the annual Holy Days. This is a public newsletter so when people send articles here to be printed, it is my obligation to point out to people what is wrong with their article publicly if we find something wrong with it. Dwight’s article “Passover Confusion” was riddled with so many lies that Darwin interjected his thoughts in many places throughout as well. I have no problem with Dwight holding on to his belief system if that is what he wants to do, but don’t send it over here or we will tell you what is wrong with that belief system, just like we would tell a Sunday keeper what is wrong with their Sunday belief. There are several examples throughout the bible where people were publicly rebuked. Just a couple are when Paul rebuked Peter for what he believed and when Steven rebuked a whole bunch of people for what they believed and then they killed him. Since I am fishing for your reasoning, if it is my use of the word lie that you had a problem with, the definition of a lie is an untruth. If someone says the earth is flat, the statement is a lie by the simple fact that it is not true. No matter what words you use to tell someone that the earth is not flat they are still going to belief you are calling them a liar so why not just get to the point. It does not matter that a person actually believes the earth is flat and doesn’t see that as a lie. What does matter is that it is not true which makes the repeating of it a lie and according to scripture someone should tell them it is a lie to show love toward that person. It is true that if you tell a flat earth believer that the earth is not flat, they probably won’t believe you but at least you told them. When you tell them the blood is no longer on you but on them. From the things that Dwight writes and sends over here, it becomes clear he is not doing any kind of a deep study of scripture and yet he has been in the church for over forty years. One article he sent over here he made the statement that Ninevah did not repent when Jonah came. The book of Jonah is 4 chapters long and just a simple reading of the book would clearly show you that Nineveh did repent and yet Dwight said they did not. Another article he wrote he was claiming Christ was not in the grave for 3 days and 3 nights even though Christ himself said he would be. These are huge errors that he is teaching to people, and God is not going to be happy with that no matter what kind of mushy love you use to cover it over. The love that God wants you to have for His people is a lot deeper than the mushy love the world teaches. If someone is wrong and you can prove it from scripture, then you need to tell them even if it shatters their belief system. Isa 58:1 Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. To show love to your brethren is to point out their error when you can in hopes they will hear at some point in time what you said to them, because no one who is a law breaker will be in the presence of God because He cannot tolerate sin in His presence. I am sorry that you did not understand my commentary. Some publications print articles with untruths in them and never even comment on them, leaving people confused, especially the writer. The Bible tells us to teach the law and when people teach against the law it is our obligation to try to point out what is wrong with what the writer is teaching or we will be held personally responsible for their sins because we didn’t warn them. If you want to show love one to another then don’t go along with their sin by not telling them about their sin. I am not one to beat around the bush and sugar coat what I say. I find it interesting that you felt you should defend Dwight in his sin rather than to take your time to point out to him what you felt was wrong with his article. That sort of leaves him confused don’t you think? Perhaps you could have done a better job than we did. Laura Lee |
Views: 7