When Coulter sent his yearly taped sermon on tithing, "Your Financial Responsibility," we noticed that he was putting a guilt trip on people, and he was coming on stronger. A friend of ours told us that he didn't tithe because it was not scriptural. Since we had been taught for years it was scriptural, it came as a shock to us. So we decided to do a study on our own about the subject. We had never at that point read anything about tithing, other than what the ministers told us. We were surprised to say the least! Tithing is not required in the N.T.. The tithing practice indeed does not even exist today. If a person wants to give, then call it what it is: Giving. Not tithing.

There is one very simple fact that no one has covered as far as we know that proved to us that tithing is not required now. The Scribes and Pharisees (religious teachers) were constantly after the apostle Paul about something. They even brought false charges against him. But they never once accused him of taking tithes that belonged to them. It is not likely that they would let Paul get by with teaching if tithes should go to the apostles.

When we started questioning the tithing doctrine, along with some other things, Fred Coulter, of course, lashed back, put us down on his sermon tapes (not by name, but we knew who he meant), and he made more tapes, with stronger messages about tithing--all the time with fear and intimidation. He said he never knew it to fail. "Something will happen to people who stop tithing!"³

We left Coulter and sent for tapes from Ray Wooten and Dave Havir.² And we found more of the same old Worldwide Church of God doctrines there. One sermon tape that we received from Ray Wooten was entitled "Hypocrisy In The Church." The subject was tithing. He quoted the same old worn out Scriptures that were used for years.

It's very hard to break away from all that. But we have done it!

I want to warn people about Fred Coulter. In many ways he is so much more dangerous than Gerald Flurry or Rod Meredith. He "lovingly" calls his little group "the no hassle, recycle, last resort, Church of God." He sounds very sincere, humble, and honest, but he continues with abuse, and telling people "the door works both ways." In the beginning he taught about the false ministers in WCG. He said they never applied themselves to learn the Greek. He said he studied under Dr. Dorothy for years and he was the only student that stuck with the course. The others dropped out. He said if they don't know the Greek, they cannot know the Bible. And he seemed to know it so well. He warned us over and over about false ministers. He also said the ministers should listen to their congregation, and that was the problem with the ministers. They would not take any criticism from any members and would lash out at anyone who would dare criticize them. Now Coulter is one of them, and he does it in a very mean spirited way.

He has written many things, including The Christian Passover and The Harmony of The Gospels,⁴ and they are filled with errors when you diligently check them out by the Scriptures. For us our experience with him truly was "the last resort" (of men).

Since we have left those organizations, and discovered their false teaching, we now devote our time to studying the Scriptures to find if there are any more things that we believed are false. There are plenty of them!

These ministers sit in the temple (congregation) of God, claiming to be godly men, yet they are ravening wolves, devouring God's people. For many years they kept our noses to the old covenant grindstone. I hope many people will wake up soon.

What people need to do is check up on what these men are teaching. Is it true based on the Word of God? If not, then reject that teacher immediately. We sat by too long in Worldwide Church of God and listened to false doctrine. We were taught lies. The breakaway groups are still teaching lies; that's all they know. They are Ambassador College taught. You can take the minister out of Worldwide, but you can’t take Worldwide out of the minister.

By Emmett and Sophia (Former members of WCG, UCG and CBCG (Christian Biblical Church of God)
2003

Also read:

Is Tithing Mandatory? (from our Q&A)

You Saved Me From Fred Coulter's Group (2006 letter to ESN)

Fred Coulter - Christian Biblical Church of God Lacking in Honest, Open Debate (Includes harsh reply from Wayne Stenhouse of CBCG to Rich Hopkins)

Fred R. Coulter's Teachings Divide and Conquer Families!

Note from ESN: It is important for exiters to understand what these groups are all about and where HWA got his doctrines from, or it will be easy to start searching for another group with similar teachings. (Read: Where Do I Find the "One True Church"?)

Footnotes by ESN:

¹ Today Fred Coulter's group is called Christian Biblical Church of God (founded in 1982), which a split of Biblical Church of God (founded by Coulter in 1979).

² Dave Havir (former disfellowshipped WCG minister) founded United Church of God Big Sandy in 1995. Their group is now known as Church of God, Big Sandy.

³ It is a common cult tactic to say that "something will happen to those who don't tithe." [See: How Mystical Manipulation is Used in Armstrong Groups] Our blessings in the New Testament are spiritual, not physical. [Read about the lie: "The reason you aren't prospering financially is because you are robbing God of your tithes and offerings!"]

⁴  Harmony of the Gospels by Frederick R. Coulter, copyright 1974, York Publishing Company, was, for many years, read by WCG members. Many never knew the author (Fred Coulter) was actually a former WCG member with his own splinter group. 

Articles For Those Who Were Emotionally and Spiritually Abused

Questioning Herbert W. Armstrong (was he who he said he was?) (many articles)  

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