Below is documentation of the FIRST Laodicean warning given to the Worldwide Church of God. This message still stands today as the only one correctly—biblically—delivered to God’s people.

Flurry seized these writings as his own—as coming to him “out of the blue!” To scare people into not seriously questioning how he arrived at his message and to thwart any rivals who could challenge him, he used the oldest tricks in the book–claiming an angel specially delivered the message to him personally. À la Joseph Smith with Mormonism.

You will easily find that the ideas that Flurry plagiarized from the seven scrolls (The Letter to Laodicea). Regardless of the outright plagiarism, there is the heinous use of truth by Flurry to start up his own church. What Mr. Dervaes wrote and first delivered over the period of 1986-1988 in writings and then from 1988-1991 on the streets, Flurry abused by trying to legitimize godless rebellion—a coup in the name of God. The important issue is that he, preying on the helpless, insidiously manipulated God’s truth and was the first to divide God’s people, thereby opening the floodgates for continuing schism. If Malachi’s Message were truly from God, then it wouldn’t have advocated another government. God does not—He cannot—bless division.

Man’s laws there are loopholes, but in God’s court He will have all the evidence. That is the ONLY court that matters.

I. Registered receipts for letters (”scrolls”): First, Second, Third, Fourth, Sixth, Seventh (all original drafts on file).
—plus Joseph Tkach’s Sr. signature for first letter; the 1990 letter to Gerald Flurry
Please note: The fifth letter (Stabbed in the Back) was sent to Mr. Tkach, but not as registered mail.

II. After sending Joseph Tkach Sr. the preview of the first letter (A Good News Letter)
—Larry Salyer’s response (12/23/86)

III. After sending Joseph Tkach Sr. the second letter (Now, the Last Era)
—David Hunsberger’s response (3/3/87)

IV. After sending out the first, second, and third letters to Ambassador College faculty
—Arthur Suckling’s response (4/28/87)

V. Number of people sent warning message directly:
—Ministers: 237*
—Members: approximately 479
* Not including those staff members in worldwide PT and GN field offices.

Number of ministers and members who received the message indirectly:
Many, many thousands, as there were three intervening FOT which naturally afforded plenty of opportunity for these ideas to be spread through personal exchanges.
—Feast of Tabernacles: 1987, 1988, 1989

VI. Gerald Flurry’s home state reached by mail FOT (1988) through requests.
(All addresses on file)

OKLAHOMA
Number of Mailings - City:
1 - Avant
4 - Broken Arrow
1 - Catoosa
1 - Claremore
1 - Coweta
1 - Glenpool
2 - Owasso
3 - Sand Springs
1 - Tahlequah
12 - Tulsa

VII. Receipts for Tyler Telegraph and Longview News-Journal newspaper ad. (Also witnessed in person at Big Sandy on Last Day of Unleavened Bread, April 1989.)

—Newspaper AD tearsheet

VIII. Malachi’s Message - the “lost page” of the original 1990 version that is mentioned in Mr. Dervaes’s letter to Gerald Flurry in September 1990 which said that Dr. Hoeh “stated that the Church of God has entered into the Laodicean era….”

Greatness is not where we stand, but in what direction we are moving.  We must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it—but sail we must, and not drift, nor lie at anchor.
~Oliver Wendell Holmes

Do You Know This Much?

The shoe does fit—
Wear it.
God has given you your brain—
Use it.
This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance—
Take it.

I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other!

So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.

You say, “I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.” But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.

I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.

Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent.

Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.

To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

REVELATION 3:14-22

Consequently, there now exist couch potato Christians, mainly absorbed in viewing world events, who have not exercised their flabby faith in decades; party hearty Christians whose only deep fulfillment is in getting stuffed at potluck feasts with others of like “intestinal fortitude”; and corporate yes-men Christians who fawningly head bob in church, desperately seeking the approval of their egocentric ministers.

How did following in Christ’s footsteps become just another walk in the park?  There is something seriously, wickedly wrong when Christians of this age are having so much fun.  The Church has turned into just another type of club, the aim of which is to keep all the members happy.  Happy people stay in their seats and, most importantly, pay their dues.  This sweet arrangement yields a growth in membership and—yes!—now there is much more fun to be had.  As they increase, busy little bees produce more honey for the hive; and so, “the work” of rolling out the good times goes on and on.

What, then, does it cost a person today to be a Christian?  Some of his time and a little of his money.  Yet, in return he gets all the choice benefits of belonging to an exclusive social group.  What kind of sacrifice is that?  Such an advantageous trade is not in the least bit worthy of the name Christ.  A Christianity which pays makes a travesty of our Savior’s death.

Our society having entered the 21st century, a strange thing has happened to the Church; it also has been simultaneously transformed along the way.  Baptized into a radically new system, we cannot be the same kind of people as those who walked this earth in Christ’s time.  For, how we live is who we are.  Our world is artificial; we are artificial.  When we visit a place together for one hour, one day a week, we form a synthetic church for worshipping a “God” that we have fabricated in our own image.

Who is The Lord in our lives?  We all are our own lords.  Consequently, steeped in aristocratic arrogance, we cannot humble ourselves to work in unity under the true God who directs one—and only one—Church.

Now the ball is in your court.  At the very least you should reach for your Bible to try to prove this material wrong.  Furthermore, you should write back with the results of your study.  Your beliefs should be out in the open; your light a beacon to others.  For, only by your witnessing to the truth can you ever become courageous.  You will need every ounce of courage as you will undergo an extreme test of your faith because Christ wants to know if you are His true follower or just a church-club member—a phony.

Your only choice is whether you take the test now or later.  However, you must realize it will only get increasingly difficult the longer you wait.  If you sleep on this, you will be keeping your faith wrapped in mothballs.  Then, one day, you will be shocked to find that your R&R time will have run out and you will have to respond physically—with dynamic, heroic faith—to God’s final wake-up call!

These warning messages could be seen on the Sabbath for one hour before services and for two hours after. At each appearance WCG photographers took pictures to document all signs and banners for the church’s records. During Ministerial Refresher Programs, numerous ministers attending from foreign countries also received the same witness. Furthermore, for four Feast of Tabernacles time periods, many thousands of members visiting from around the world saw firsthand a real biblical work in progress.

Here, then, in this modern era, on the streets on Pasadena—for three and a half years (April, 1988 to September, 1991)—the Bible had come alive!