Fred Coulter - Christian Biblical Church of God Lacking in Honest, Open Debate

ESN received an email from Richard Hopkins, recent exiter of Fred Coulter's group (he also Cc it to several others). Attached was a tithing report (publication) entitled, "Scriptural Evidence for Tithing - Are You Robbing God?" co-authored by Richard F. Hopkins, Jeffrey A. Corley, and Robert E. Dowless Jr. At the end of Rich Hopkins' email was a harsh response that he received from Wayne Stenhouse of CBCG.

William Hohmann (a helper in ESN) critiqued the tithing report and sent a copy to Hopkins. In it he showed that Hopkins and Church of God Scripturalists (not affiliated with any one corporate Church of God) were still taking the covenant that was given to Israel and assigning it to N.T. Christians (as Herbert Armstrong attempted to do).

We encourage Rich and all those who have left Christian Biblical Church of God to continue to educate themselves on Herbert W. Armstrong and the history of the WCG and to understand the relationship of the O.T. covenant with Israel to Christians today.

UPDATE 5-24-07: Jeff Corley, who had been corresponding with William (Bill) Hohmann, later wrote to let him know that the veil over his eyes had been lifted by the Grace of God. He said most of them in the group are now seeing faith as compared to the works of the Law and they understand that the Sabbath and Holy Days are no longer in effect. With joy he told how their eyes are continuing to open up to much more. Only the Holy Spirit can open up anyone's eyes, and this was wonderful and exciting news to hear.

April 14, 2007

Hello,

My name is Rich Hopkins. I am one of several (previous) members of Fred Coulter's group [see ESN's articles on Christian Biblical Church of God]. While some of us have left his group for several reasons, some have left directly or indirectly over tithing.

Our small group set out to answer the tithing question as well. One of our brethren asked the question concerning tithing and we quickly realized that we had never proven this question for ourselves.

We too came to the conclusion that there is no New Testament command for tithing--at least to a minister. We published our findings in a report just last week (please see the attached). ...

As a witness, we sent this report out to all of the brethren and ministry we could find. Our intention was to inspire debate, and study in God's word to "prove all things." Most of the brethren have responded in a positive way. Of course not all. But that is up to the individual to do the study themselves or to believe an organization's traditions, or the teachings of a man.

To our great disappointment, we received back a very harsh email from one of the ministers in CBCG (see below). It seems we too have had the same response that you had when you dared to question the validity of how the tithe was taught. In reality, this type of response is a blessing because it is an additional witness as to where love, sincerity, and willingness to honestly and openly debate the scriptures, are sorely lacking.

I forward this attached report for your reading pleasure. To date, no one has offered scriptural evidence to dispute the findings but we do welcome (and indeed desire) such feedback. Our sole desire is to know and live the truth.

We are now going through what you went through years before. It is heartening to know we are not alone and it helps me to realize that God is doing something greater than we all think. He is separating out those from under a corporate veil and control so that we can truly fellowship with one another and with God. The result with us is an explosion of "new" truth that we know we would never have come to understand under a corporate umbrella.

May God bless your efforts.

Rich Hopkins

Response from a minister in CBCG--this is exactly how the email was received by us--there are no changes to it.

HOW DARE YOU DO THIS TO THE BRETHREN!

To the UNORDAINED AND FAITHLESS PEOPLE WHO PRODUCED THIS INSULTING PLAGERIZED USELESS REPORT;

Nice try but you Will deal with God. Stop using our church people to start your own organization for your own use. Go away, start your own church yourselves. I will expose you and I will stand up for God's truth not your insinuations of which you have NO CLUE.

This is a rebellion for how Allen was supposedly handled, nothing else. You ARE HEADED FOR DESTRUCTION and take your silver and gold with you.

NEVER< NEVER send me anything again

Wayne Stenhouse, AN ORDAINED MINISTER of God.

Note from ESN: The above reply from Wayne Stenhouse is a good example of how leaders of controlling groups enforce absolute obedience and cannot stand to be confronted. [Read: Identifying Marks of an Exploitive, Abusive Group] ESN's words are in color.

Additional research:

Tithing (Brief, but very good, offsite article on tithing vs. Spirit-directed giving)

Should the Church Teach Tithing? (reasons to replace tithing) (When proof-text arguments are replaced by contextual and grammatical-historical methods, tithing is easily proven to be biblically indefensible as a spiritually beneficial New Covenant doctrine. Very thorough online book; click on chapter titles on left)

Beware of Fred R. Coulter!

Understanding Mind Control and Exploitive Groups (many articles)

Articles For Those Who Were Emotionally and Spiritually Abused

Back to Stories & Testimonies by Former Members of WCG and Offshoots