The Story of Diotrephes and the Root!

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Please Note: This latest post is quite long and so has been divided into sections to be read over several readings, if one chooses. I anticipate this will be the last post I make on this site, barring some unusual circumstance. I have included abbreviated information from many previous posts to make the subject easier to follow for those persons who have not yet read this entire history. There are just a few redundancies for those who have already read this site and, for some subjects, I have linked back to these earlier posts, if the subject seemed too broad to summarize here. This seemed the most efficient way to effectively discuss these topics and still accommodate those who have not yet read the entire history as told here on this site. For those who have read this site, I have a primary focus on what I consider to be the five most important things: Love, tolerance, justice, mercy and faithfulness. This post is simply a lengthier examining of the lack of these things in aberrant churches like the ABC.

The focus of this site is primarily on just this one church, The Assembly of the Body of Christ, incorporated in Washington State and currently led by a man named Gilbert Larson. This is the church my father, Ramon A Haas, started in our living room in Seattle in the late 60's during the Jesus People era and so is the church I know most about. However, this subject matter is generally transferable to any other aberrant church with abusive doctrines like the ABC in its design. It appears there are many churches with similar abusive doctrines in the world and only the name is different.  

If you are looking for the main site it can be found here:  Link to Main Site

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DIOTREPHES

I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to have the preeminence among them, does not receive us. Therefore, if I come, I will call to mind his deeds which he does, prating against us with malicious words. And not content with that, he himself does not receive the brethren, and forbids those who wish to, putting them out of the church. Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. He who does good is of God, but he who does evil has not seen God. Demetrius has a good testimony from all, and from the truth itself. And we also bear witness, and you know that our testimony is true.           Third John

Here is that same text in a more modern bible translation.

I have already written something to the group of believers. But Diotrephes refuses to accept our authority. He really wants to be the only leader among them.  So, when I arrive there myself, I will speak to the believers about this. I will tell them clearly about the bad things that Diotrephes is doing. He tells other people bad things about us that are not true. Even that is not enough for him. He himself refuses to welcome the believers who are visiting. He also stops anyone else who wants to welcome those visitors. Instead, he sends them away from the group of believers.

Diotrephes was caught in a pattern of autocratic self-righteous behavior, very much like we see in the leaders of the Assembly of the Body of Christ (ABC) today. I will show in this post this behavior is nothing new and is actually a problem that has plagued many churches, and many persons, even since Old Testament times. 

Diotrephes refused to accept anyone outside his personal church circle as being valid. He made up stories, lies actually, about others in order to advance his own egotistical position. He then forbid others to talk to those persons he made up stories about. Persons who were likely once great friends but were now forced enemies. Next, he went yet another step further and ex-communicated those he found not to his own liking by using greater cooked up stories to falsely incriminate them which then left them completely discredited as they were being "put away".

I have underlined above those things the writer considered “evil” as these similar practices are found among a few of the top leaders of the ABC today, as well as in other abusive churches across the globe. These evil practices have existed for many generations in Christianity as well as also back into Old Testament times. These leaders in the ABC, and elsewhere, are caught up in this same pattern of self-righteous behavior for personal gain that influenced Diotrephes. John did not mince words when declaring this things to be "evil". 

JONATHAN EDWARDS

Another John, a man named Jonathan Edwards, wrote about this issue of pride and hypocrisy back in the 1700’s,

A person who is under the influence of spiritual pride is more apt to instruct others, than to inquire for himself, and naturally puts on the airs of a master… As spiritual pride disposes persons to assume much to themselves, so it also disposes them to treat others with neglect.

Edwards wrote a great deal more than just this snippet about spiritual abuse, but what he relates here is quite comparable to the atmosphere existing in the ABC. Of course the leaders of the ABC will reject these words of Jonathan Edwards, since he is not a part of the ABC, and is therefore suspect, but that only proves my first point about the ways of  Diotrephes and how he was not accepting those outside his close church circle.

There is a parable Jesus told that equates to this spiritual pride and it can be found in the book of Luke.  Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:  “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’  I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be^]humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

RECOVERING PHARISEES

I read a book about fifteen years ago called “Twelve Steps for the Recovering Pharisee…(Like Me)” by John Fischer. This book addresses some of these self righteous behaviors.  It’s a slightly flawed book in my opinion as it suggests using some of our freedoms as an occasion to the flesh, but all writings are flawed in some way and it is easy to overlook this inadequacy since the bulk of the book and premise is excellent. When I first read this book it caused me to look in the mirror a bit. I was not sure I liked all I saw.

JEREMIAH  

A similar issue existed in Jeremiah's day when well meaning people were caught in this same web of self-righteousness and falsehoods; 

For among My people are found wicked men; they lie in wait as one who sets snares; they set a trap; they catch men.  As a cage is full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit. Therefore they have become great and grown rich.  They have grown fat, they are sleek; Yes, they surpass the deeds of the wicked; they do not plead the cause, the cause of the fatherless; yet they prosper, And the right of the needy they do not defend. Shall I not punish them for these things?’ says the Lord. ‘Shall I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this?’  “An astonishing and horrible thing has been committed in the land: The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own power; and my people love to have it so. But what will you do in the end?     Book of Jeremiah

The worst part of this story being that the people loved it so when they saw others spiritually abused. There was a total lack of love and tolerance among them. Refer to the Stanley Milgram experiment for help understanding this phenomenon of the human mind.

NAME DROPPING 

I mention the names of a few leaders of the Assembly of the Body of Christ (ABC) on my site, the chief among them being Gilbert Larson, Bruce Leonard, Andy Atwell and David North. Some have faulted me for this, however the writer of Third John was not hesitant to call out Diotrephes by name. This was a man who created the exact same evil works as occurred with me at an ambush and the incessant torments that followed that ambush. Jesus called out the Pharisees directly and without hesitation and others in the Bible were called out by name who were doing similar harm, such as Hymaneus, Alexander and Philetus. I mention only the names of those few individuals who placed themselves in leadership positions in this church and who  tried, and succeeded, to influence others to follow them in their self-righteous behavior fully lacking in love and tolerance and heavy with hypocrisy. Jesus taught that love and tolerance were two of the five most important things. To be lacking in this regard is a huge deal. In fact love and tolerance top the list of those five things as most important.

Some feel this site is pointing the finger. I suppose it technically is however, if a man is alleging they are rescuing souls, but instead are deviating from the way to safety, it becomes necessary to point at that man, note their deviation from the proper course, then hope it will effect some future change for the sake and safety of those following that person rather than truth. This is what the writer of Third John has done regarding Diotrephes. This is what Jesus did regarding the Pharisees. This is what the prophets did in times of old and this is what I do with this site.

Spiritual pride is a destructive force that must be pointed to when it exists, just as Jesus did, just as John did, just as the prophets, just as others did. Those who perpetrate this abuse of others count on the silence of the abused, and the silence of those witnessing the abuse, to hide their bad behaviors. They convince the abused the inflicted pain they feel is only because they are "not forgiving enough". They convince those observing the abuse the perpetrator has been "chosen" for this purpose, and they are simply "doing God service", therefore they cannot be confronted for their bad behavior since they are seen as "God's "anointed". This is "gaslighting" at its worst and allows the abuser to continue to abuse others when they actually need to be called out for their abuses. I believe these abusers are truly unaware how badly they are abusing others because they have become blinded by self-righteousness and hardheartedness. They feel this is a way they can do God service. It is not.

Everyone proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord; Though they join forces, none will go unpunished. Pr. 16:5

 

 

ROOT OF BITTERNESS 

Quite some time ago a person placed a comment on this site intimating  I perhaps just had a “root of bitterness”. They likely assume this because I have kept and maintained this site for quite some time and therefore I must just be bitter. I state things that are uncomfortable to the leadership of the ABC. This discomfort has likely been expressed to this person, and explained away, as my having a "root of bitterness". However it is the leadership who passed judgement over me with a single misinterpreted sentence I spoke stating it was an eternal judgment, and not vice versa.  My site will last much less time than eternal and their false judgment does not intimidate me or make me bitter. I know it to be a false judgment. I have seen similar false judgments passed on others for many years and I now do what I can to prevent others from falling prey to this pit they have dug. More on that pit later.

The specific words used in the comment were “By holding on so long, a root of bitterness has sprung up”. This person has never met me,  has never been involved in my life, does not know my heart, yet they feel qualified to make this judgment from afar, without any true knowledge of the facts firsthand. The comment also intimates I don't understand apostles, prophets and the like since I state THE apostle, etc. They intimate I do not understand this all began two-thousand years ago, not in 1967 in Seattle. Here is the exact statement.

You refer to Gilbert as the Apostle and Andy as the Evangelist and so on. You’re misleading the readers. Scripture talks about the fact that there will be apostles and evangelists and people who prophecy. By saying that they are the only ones or the primary ones is not correct. You know this being an elder like you were.

You say the origins of this fellowship started within this century but to be honest, it started close to about 2,000 ago. 

I am in complete agreement with anonymous B's statements above about "the". Anyone reading through my site, with an open mind, will see this is precisely the point I am making. The ABC is not the only one with truth, yet they have isolated themselves from the rest of mankind like Diotrephes tried to do. They are skeptical of the salvation of anyone not baptized by them directly. They don't look for fruit when deciding who is "of God", they instead interrogate.

I am very aware this began with the teachings of Jesus more than 2,000 years ago. I have made this point repeatedly in my writings. There are many denominations and when I refer to Seattle and the Wilcrest Apartments I am referring only to this specific faction of Christianity, this new denomination called "The Assembly of the Body of Christ" since that is the church I know best. The truth is, the teachings of the ABC are not always in alignment with the basic teachings as Jesus taught them. In this point they have greatly erred. Refer to my post on "Statistical Improbabilities" in which I discuss, in detail, the ABC is not THE body of Christ as they believe. 

It is a core doctrine of the ABC they have knowledge of an exclusive seven step path to salvation, to the exclusion of all others. All others not part of the the ABC are "in the world" or "in Mystery Babylon". They believe they alone are the only true church on the planet and this is reflected in a few of the comments posted. If they tell you differently ask which other churches, or persons, are on their "accepted" list. It's a very short list. One elder who traveled the globe extensively in their job remarked to me once that in all of their travels they had never found any other "believers".  That is statistically impossible and is not in line with scripture. 

I  graciously accept the opinion of "anonymous B" about me. It is an opinion which they are entitled to keep, if they choose. The truth is, I feel only sadness for those persons I once knew, not bitterness. These were people I once called “friends”. It hurt deeply to discover these "friends" I thought I knew had always just been false "friends". A true friend sticks closer than a brother and does not have the contingency one must affiliate with the ABC in order to be considered a valid friend. That stance alone is an earmark of a cult-like aberrant church. 

 Proverbs 16 sums this up nicely: A perverse man sows strife, and a whisperer separates the best of friends.

When I encountered a couple of these "friends" in general public it is they who ran from me, not vice versa.  For those few leaders I call out by name, my only concern for them is they realize they will someday be measured with the same measuring stick they carry and will likely be found greatly wanting. They measure others with an impossible measure while failing to measure themselves in the mirror with that same measure. This is spiritual pride. Belshazzar, son of Nebuchadnezzar was caught up in this exact same pride when he saw the writing on the wall that read in part; Tekel; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.

The person, known to me only as Anonymous B who is making this comment is likely only repeating what they have been told by leaders of the ABC when asking questions about this site.  I have made it quite clear my site is written from my perspective alone. It is the only perspective I know and I do not even try to speak for others. No writing is ever perfect so it must be read and observed in its whole and not dissected to find a flaw one can then apply to the whole.  

I have no choice but to draw from my own experiences when making comment. I make a good attempt to back up my statements with as much fact as is available to me and I encourage anyone reading my site to examine the evidence for themselves with an open heart and mind. Search the web, and other places, for the information and confirm it. Ask lots of questions of those who present themselves as leaders in the church. Examine where your feet stand and determine if those you follow are seeking their own welfare or yours. Examine their words carefully to see if they are indeed truthful. Don't just assume they are truthful because they have given themselves a title and position in the church.  Diotrephes also took his position by force and then did "evil" to those who followed him. We must follow God directly and not any man.  Draw no conclusions based on a judgment passed on another or hearsay. Don't formulate a conclusion based strictly on my words, or the words of anyone else. 

"A devotion to the truth begins by doubting what has been assumed in the past. Anonymous" 

The way we all view the world is subjective. It's just our nature. I write my story here with the hope it will be read objectively and not subjectively. One should not abandon objectivity  just because the information is from someone who has professed a religious title they gave themselves. Especially if that person tries to diminish these words through subterfuge of thought. I certainly don’t expect anyone to accept my words at face value. I present only a very small sample of information on my site as a jumping off point for any person seeking out the true facts on their own. The truth is sometimes covered up with intimidation and myth. Don't be intimidated when questioning the status quo, and don't just accept the myth as reality. It is not wrong to ask many questions, hold feet to the fire or demand specific answers. One should not accept vague answers such as "just trust God". This is a subterfuge intended to maintain a position of power by a few over the many.  I trust God. It is mankind who at times seeks its own purpose I don't trust. 

Paul, Silvanus and Timotheus wrote to the Thessalonians telling them they should, " prove all things; hold fast that which is good.”.  This proving goes both directions. Examine everything, question the status quo, weigh all of the evidence and see if it carries the proper weight. Those in leadership are simply hirelings. They may be working to their own advantage and not to the advantage of the "sheep". 

It is not sinful to ask questions of the ABC leadership. It is not wrong to ask how they spend the money they have been entrusted with. Money holds a lot of power and this power has been held secret in the ABC for too many decades. The ABC is a church alleging they have no leaders when they actually do. This myth is just one of the many falsehoods they speak.

I previously heard feedback on what people are told when asking about my site. Mostly they are told not to read it, the justification being I am "just a liar" and am “making it all up”. I made up nothing and much of what I have written is easily provable with secondary evidence. When possible I have provided links and documents. If my site is just blatant untruth, why then are they afraid for others to read my words? 

Some have apparently stated I allegedly just have "unresolved issues with my daddy", the man who started this new denomination named the Assembly of the Body of Christ (ABC) in our living room in Seattle. They apparently state  I was  always just trouble, but this is quite far from true. No one could possibly accuse me of having been a "juvenile delinquent" as a youth.  I never participated in any of those things usually associated with teenage rebellions and lived mostly contented in the very small box I was made to live in at  home. I rarely pushed back in angry protest, even when I was physically imprisoned and isolated in my room as a teen, my meals being left in front of my bedroom door while as I was made to eat in solitary confinement. Despite being treated with contempt by a stepmother who regularly called me names such as  "baby", "infant" "too stupid to know..."and much more I did not rebel. My stepmother was proud of her basic philosophy that anyone one day younger than herself was an "infant", a "child" and therefore that person must obey whatever she commanded, her being "the older one" and all. I was spared her physical abuses but she regularly physically abused other very small children not her own. There is much more to that story than I have told on this site. I know of one child in particular who suffered lifelong physical consequences from her misdeeds.

As a youth, then as a young man, I put my head down and did my best to stay off my stepmother's  radar. I attempted to live up to my father's expectations and never openly rebelled against him. Those who make this accusation against me should be made to put a fine point on it, provide concrete evidence of this allegation, and not just paint me with a broad stroke based on their own supposition. There is much that happened behind the scenes that is unknown to most. If one chooses to use my father's disowning of me in my early thirties as evidence of "rebellion", I assure you there is much more to that disowning than meets the eye. Much more than the leadership would ever want people to know and some of the leaders do not, in fact, know all of the facts of certain illegalities. I will address that in just a little more detail later but the entire story is not worth telling since my father is long ago deceased.

So, am I trouble? I addressed this in a previous post and I suppose I am. My father saw me as trouble, at times, when I felt he was slicing hairs a bit too thin and was doing damage to others. I made my thoughts known to him directly but not openly. On a few occasions, as an adult, I called him on issues privately but with respect. A couple times he came back to me,  years later, to tell me I was right and he had wished he had listened to my perspective. In the immortal words of Walter Brennan; "No brag, just fact". 

I have measured and weighed my words on this site and have done my best to state only the necessary  facts. I have tried to remove as much emotion as possible but, being human, some emotion is bound to leak through at times.

I have heard this statement “root of bitterness” stated many times, about many other people, over many decades. It is generally stated about any person who left the ABC, were ex-communicated, or who had been through the ABC “discipline” mill and balked at, or spoke against, the abuses they witnessed and / or  experienced. Theses persons were then labeled with this “root of bitterness” label. This had the profound effect of thoroughly invalidating anything one might say that is true. It's a very useful tool in an abusers toolbox. I will discuss this more later.

In the ABC, the leadership will uses this tool to invalidate the words of any person who does not precisely toe their line. This practice is meant to intimidate these persons into submission, or silence them completely. The word "rebellious: is quite an effective label and it is an effective method of diminishing and discrediting any person they choose. It is very easy to do this in a "groupthink" environment like the ABC. However, just slapping a label, rather than listening and understanding, causes spiritual deafness and blindness for those who are  slapping on the label. Much more on that later. 

 

 

SPEAKING NON-VIOLENTLY

A man named Marshall Rosenberg developed a training program for what he termed “Non-Violent Communication”. It’s a tedious program at times, much like practicing piano scales only with words and phrases instead of musical notes. I have been through this lengthy program through a previous employer and the tedious practice sessions instill some great communication principles and practices that can be used universally to resolve conflicts. Much like learning to play music learning these techniques requires a lifetime of practice but will never be perfect.

One of the principal stakes in this instruction is an explanation on why others speak words of protest. Rosenberg theorized persons who speak out in protest, or anger, are actually just  exposing a deep need or hurt that remains unmet. I tend to agree with Rosenberg on this point. I have used some of his principles to deescalate many individuals well beyond upset and found them effective. Sometimes just to be heard is all a person really needs., Those who choose not to listen, and learn the unmet deep need, are lacking in love, compassion and empathy. Love is the most important thing Jesus ever spoke of. Persons who lack love are, in some ways, acting violently toward another individual, just without physicality. Words alone can strike blows and do just as much damage as fists, swords or arrows.   

There is one who speaks like the piercings of a sword, but the tongue of the wise promotes health. Pr. 12:18

Hide me from the plots of evil men, from the crowd of evildoers. They sharpen their tongues like swords; they aim their arrows, a slanderous charge, in order to shoot down the innocent in secluded places. They shoot at him suddenly and are unafraid of retaliation.  Ps. 64

Those who remain deliberately ignorant of a person's hurt will become lost in their own sense of self-perfection and self-rightness. They will no longer have an ear to hear what others are truly saying and have, in fact, stored up hate in their heart.  

A man with hate in his heart may sound pleasant enough, but don’t believe him; for he is cursing you in his heart. Though he pretends to be so kind, his hatred will finally come to light for all to see. Pr. 26

Perhaps that person “speaking out” in protest has some valid points and concerns, or perhaps they feel the treatment they received was unbalanced, unjust or just plain wrong or unfair. I will explore this concept in much more detail a little later in this post since it is the crux of the whole matter surrounding "root of bitterness". To ignore a person's hurt is not abiding by the true fast which requires we put away our self, undo heavy burdens and set free the oppressed. This is what Jesus taught. Even if we perceive a person to be deficient, according to our own measure, we must still do what we can to set them free.

Martin Luther King, Jr. once said; “A riot is the language of the unheard.” Using riot as the benchmark for protest language, all those unheard in the ABC, speaking out against the abuses, are not  anywhere close to rising to the level of riot, or even to the level of shouting. They are actually just speaking, figuratively speaking, in normal tones. Perhaps even practically whispering their protests. They deserve an amplified voice.

 

IT'S ONLY FAIR

When assessing the validity of the information I provide on this site it is only fair to understand my perspective is not that of an individual who joined this church, became an elder, decided it was not for me, then began to make trouble. I am the son of the founder, Ramon A Haas, and I was born about the time the roots of this church were first sinking into Pentecostalism and Branhamism. Later, these roots began to sink into an Assembly of God doctrinal base born straight out of the Sharon Orphanage / Latter Rain Revival movement in Saskatchewan Canada. The teachings of Bill Branham, Kathryn Kuhlman, A.A. Allen, Smith Wigglesworth, Bill Bright, David Wilkerson, Billy Graham and a host of other prominent Pentecostal, Latter Rain and Assembly of God celebrities are the sources who most influenced my father's doctrines. Even though he rejected many of these people later, those influences still greatly influenced his teachings during the initial growth phase of the ABC. Some of those doctrines are cancerous and metastatic.

My father's viewpoints and doctrines were most greatly shaped, just prior to the formation of the ABC at the Wilcrest Apartments in Seattle, by a man named James A Watt during our time at Broadway Tabernacle. Watt was one of the original founders of the Latter Rain Revival Movement at the Sharon Orphanage in Saskatchewan Canada.  I include here a short video of Watt, now deceased, as he was interviewed in his home. Our family spent considerable time with the Watts when I was a youth.

 

 

James A Watt

My father, from the time I can earliest remember, spent nearly every hour he was not working at a job ministering in various places. Full Gospel Businessman’s Fellowship, Billy Graham Crusades, Nicky Cruz Crusades, David Wilkerson Crusades, Kings Teens, KGDN radio, Union Gospel Mission, Bill Bright Ministries. That is only a few on that very long list of religious endeavors. He was a driven man when he came back from the war and it seemed he was driven to always be away ministering in one form or another. My brother and I spent many nights alone locked in the church basement in downtown Seattle, sometimes until very late hours when we were roughly age ten and twelve. When my father wasn't ministering he was listening to Christian radio in the car gathering yet more ideas. When he was at home he was often in a corner studying the Bible and other books. "Children were to be seen but not heard" was a common statement he made when we would ask questions or try to talk to him. This pattern pervaded his entire life after leaving the Navy, post World War II, and continued until the day his heart failed him in his late fifties.

I did not just "attend" church at the ABC like all others. I "lived" in this church 24/7/365 until the day my father dropped me in front of my oldest sibling’s place, when I was just seventeen, then drove away to live in a bus so he could minister up and down the coast without roots and without his original family. 

Soon after formation of the ABC we stopped taking regular family vacations and most vacations became ministering trips, mostly to Grants Pass but also to other areas. One of the basic doctrines of the ABC is family is secondary to all other things. Family took a backseat to the ministry in our household. That’s not necessarily a complaint. I very much enjoyed  our summer trips to Gilbert Larson’s home in Grants Pass when we spent part of several summers living in a camp trailer parked in the Larson's driveway. Between meetings, took enough day trips to Indian Mar Park, the Applegate River and other such places to make it feel like a good vacation.  They were some very enjoyable days.

Since I did not just "attend" the ABC like others and essentially "lived" in it, I have extensive knowledge of the inner workings of the church, my father’s household, his personal life, and have personal knowledge of the years prior to the presumed beginning of the ABC at the Wilcrest Apartments in Seattle. I know the history, the pre-history, and much of the “inside scoop” on how things actually transpired in the forming, minus those years I was disowned by my father in San Diego. For that period I rely on third party reports and observations. I know the truth about all things ABC. I know which parts of the stories are myth and which are reality. I know my father for who he really was, not the mythical “man of God” some perceived him to be after he began the ABC in our living room. I was told several times, by someone directly in the know, Gilbert Larson was concerned I would speak out about these past things to the “new babes”. Both he and Bruce Leonard, I was told well prior to that final ambush, intended to “take me down” so I would not have opportunity to speak about such things or be believed.  It was never my intent, to "speak up" as I do now. Not until it was forced on my by an "eternal judgment" which was based fully on a contrived lie. It was a true wake up call for me and I began to speak out.

I am burdened with knowing a great deal more than any other person in the ABC about my father, the source of the doctrines he established, the conception and infancy of the ABC and his life. I was witness to the point at which things went completely off the rails in San Diego.

 

FOREVER AND FOR MORE

It is completely relevant one understand the “judgment” passed on me by Bruce Leonard, under the guidance of Gilbert Larson; (Bruce being considered a “ruling elder” and Gilbert Larson being considered "the apostle"), was “eternal”, forever and ever without end! This fact seems to evade those who wrote to tell me "people miss me".  I have disclosed this fact many times in my writings yet it does not seem to be understood this judgment was an "eternal" shunning or ex-communication. Some have written suggesting I return and "make peace". These persons fail to understand forever is forever, eternal is eternal. They miss the fact this type of judgment could also someday happen to them as well. No one is immune from such harsh treatment and, when it happens, it happens quite suddenly and without warning. But, given the deceit and lies used to discredit me, and all I know now of the origins of these doctrines of the ABC, I would not ever return.

There is a facade of peace in the ABC, and churches just like it, which give cover to these types of ruthless men who abuse. But my hope of salvation, anyone's hope of salvation, is not in Gilbert Larson, Bruce Leonard, Andy Atwell, David North, the ABC or any other person. The leaders would like people to assume salvation rests with the ABC as holder of a better knowledge brought about by the works of a man named John Stegenga coupled with the works of a man named Ivan Panin. However, in the ABC, a large reason for holding persons subservient to the church is really to extract a tithe which the leaders then use to enrich themselves in secret. It is God alone, not these men or any organization, which grants salvation. Though these men try to place themselves between others and God, they truly can't. No matter how large they try to make themselves appear, it's an Oz in the box facade meant to intimidate. God is much bigger, more truthful, and much more fair, just and merciful than these men.

After this “eternal judgment” was passed on me by the leaders of the ABC, at that Super Bowl Sunday ambush meeting, some who tried to speak to me again, as a friend, were threatened with excommunication if they continued. To an ABC’er that’s perceived as a “spiritual death sentence” since they have been made to believe salvation lies in the ABC alone and can be found nowhere else.  What was inflicted on me, and others as well, was a premeditated and purposeful attack to bolster the self-righteous egos of these leaders, just like the plot of Diotrephes. Did that hurt? Of course, it hurt. I lost many persons I thought were “friends” overnight. It stung to realize they proved not true friends.  Is that an eternal hurt? Of course, it is. Some of these people I had known since childhood. A couple I considered to be very close friends. One individual I felt a kinship with, just as referred to in Proverbs 18; But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. I was clearly wrong about that one. It felt then as if someone had flown a plane into a mountain with everyone I knew on board and they all just instantly disappeared from my life. Since outside friends are frowned upon, unless it is to "proselytize", this leaves a huge hole in one's life. Even those in what the ABC considers “the world”  know this is abusive behavior and is quite unjust.

The self-righteous scream judgments against others to hide the noise of skeletons dancing in their own closets.― John Mark Green

There is but one explanation for these men’s actions; they have oversized self-righteous egos, just like that of the Pharisees of Jesus day, just like Diotrephes, just like the Chief Priests who cooked up a story for the legal system to rid themselves of that "blasphemer" Jesus. Jesus, the one who regularly threatened their religious power and continuously broke their religious rules and laws. The plot was effective. They had Jesus killed by the surrounding government, just like the prophets of old were killed for also speaking against the religious self-righteous power structures.

Jesus never stayed silent in warning people away from Pharisees. These men I refer to follow in the footsteps of the Pharisees and Diotrephes and I will not be silent either. The judgment placed on me by these men was considered eternal. My “red flag” website will remain only as long as the web, or the ABC, remains and that is far less time than eternal. This site will likely outlive me but it will continue to serve as a warning to all persons interested in the ABC for many years to come. The ABC is not a spiritually safe place, even if it seems cozy at the start, when the initial “love bombing” is occurring.  Trust me, that “love bombing” will at some point end. No one has immunity from their false disciplines.

This judgement on my soul was no small matter and did not stem, as some have apparently assumed, from a simple doctrinal disagreement over the interpretation of a scripture. It was the final act, in a series of many intentional bad acts perpetrated against my peace by these  "leaders". It was a premeditated ambush directly preceded by multiple lies and a deliberate subterfuge used to draw me to that ambush. The ambush was followed by spiritual harassment that carried on for months. The only reason it ended is because I went into hiding after selling the home I had just purchased, quit my career position with the federal government, went into debt, then hid from the well-meaning people who were just trying to “patch things up”. These people did not realize there was no desire with the leaders to patch anything up as there was an ulterior motive for my "putting away". These leaders had, in their self-righteous endeavors, eternally judged me to be a “blasphemer” forever and ever and if they tell a different story, they are again lying. And, as I have previously mentioned, Bruce Leonard and Gilbert Larson feel lies are righteous if they are spoken to "protect the body".  My father also believed this. I do not.

There were some who came to my door to further condemn me without any knowledge of the actual facts. All of this was not just devastating, it caused me to lose nearly everything I had worked for, just so I could hide from the parade showing up at my door, even at very late hours. I had things shouted at me such as “you are a stain on the body”, by some who knew absolutely none of the facts. Many tried to convince me to “come back and just go along with whatever they say, even if they are wrong". "For the sake of the babes” is a statement I heard repeatedly. That actually interprets to "don't interrupt the love bombing of the newbies".  

When inquiring of all of these people as to what they felt I had done that made me such trash overnight, not a single one could answer the question. They simply looked puzzled and parroted back what they had been told by Bruce Leonard and Gilbert Larson. What they had been told is not to enter my home or speak with me unless a trusted elder was present to supervise the visit. This is a clear mark of a cultish organization that binds up freedoms. Most seemed confused and felt I was on “discipline” because of my “stubbornness”, "rebellion" or "refusal to repent” from some unknown deed. "Rebellion" is the most common label placed on those in the ABC who do not fall into lockstep with the beliefs of the leaders. "Rebellion" can mean one has questioned the leadership too much, or is perceived not to believe exactly as the leaders believe. No one ever stated to me they knew I had been condemned with an “eternal judgment” for all of eternity. All of these actions have been labeled by the leaders as "righteous deeds". I assure you these are not righteous deeds that were perpetrated on my life, as well as others lives, by these men.

After the ambush I was invited to what I thought was to be  a “friendly dinner”. I discovered it was actually just another excuse for a very long, intense interrogation session. When I tried to speak I was shouted down by the "man of the house" before I could finish a sentence. This was a couple I once considered very close friends and had, in fact, just spent several entire weekends helping remodel a house belonging to a sibling of one side of this couple. Prior to this instruction from the "leaders" there had been no hint of the hatred that was now flowing my direction from this couple. This is yet another earmark of a cultish church, when friendships can be destroyed with a single phone call. 

A perverse man sows strife,and a whisperer separates the best of friends. Pr. 16

Letters were written in secret to family members to create even more mayhem in my life. It was total warfare aimed directly at me by a few egotistical self-righteous Pharisees. But I am in good company. Jesus was targeted in much the same manner, also accusing him of  “spiritual crimes”, including "blasphemy". Once even physically slapping him for his assumed disrespect of a high official.    

But I was fortunately spared the fate of Naboth, whom Jezebel falsely declared to be a "blasphemer" before setting two men on him to carry him out of the city and stone him to death. The two men set on me at the IHOP spared me being dragged out of the city and stoned. I was instead dragged to an ambush by deceit and lies then my entire well-being was disrupted. Self-righteousness is nothing new.

And there came in two men, children of Belial, and sat before him: and the men of Belial witnessed against him, even against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, Naboth did blaspheme God and the king. Then they carried him forth out of the city, and stoned him with stones, that he died.

 

 

BLASPHEMY! 

If one wants to delve into what actually constitutes blasphemy, it was the Pharisees who blasphemed when they accused Jesus of working his ministry through Beelzebub, essentially calling him a spiritual fool who received power from the dark side. He challenged their self-righteousness and failed to follow their party line. That made him one to be shunned.  It was their actions against Jesus that put these accusers in danger of “hell fire”. It was because they labeled him an eternal fool and a speaker of blasphemies.

It was alleged at the ambush I had "nearly blasphemed the Holy Spirit" when I suggested, in answer to a question, Jesus actions as a twelve year old when he stayed behind in Jerusalem teaching, caused his parents grief and trouble. An actual fact since this is exactly what his mother expressed to him when she found him. "His mother said to Him, “Son, why have you done this to us? Look, your father and I have sought You anxiously.” Jesus then left with them to go to Nazareth and "was obedient to them,"

The ABC will point to Matthew 12 as proof of this premise of blasphemy. This is the reference when Jesus said to the Pharisees;

“Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come."

But Jesus spoke these words to those self-righteous Pharisees in response to their stating he did cast out demons not by the power of the Holy Spirit but instead by Beelzebub. This was a judgment they were not qualified to make. 

“This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.” 

I have no doubt the Chief Priests and Pharisees had secretly passed an “eternal judgement” on Jesus prior to condemning him in this way. Shame on them and shame on those who follow directly in their footsteps. Jesus warned repeatedly against being like the Pharisees. John warned against Diotrephes who also followed in the footsteps of the Pharisees. The egos of these men in the ABC, who have given themselves a title in order to assume power over others, have also become inflated by this yeast of the Pharisees. More on that poison and yeast later.

 

 

GET A REAL JOB! 

It is important to understand this final ambush was not a "one-off". This was just the final and "eternal" one, forever and ever. Prior to the final ambush I had  been frequently confronted by Bruce Leonard, a self-appointed "ruling elder". I was once even held physically captive in his home, unable to leave. I had been shouted at across his "power desk" and told I was not worthy of the Kingdom of God while on heavy pain medications after a serious head-on accident. This episode happened after telling him I could not adequately teach for a while since the pain medications were causing me drowsiness and slowed thinking. He alleged then my difficulties were not from the medication but were instead stated I was deliberately "making myself confused" so I could be a slacker. This perspective is what incited him to tell me that day I was "no longer worthy of the kingdom of God". This sentiment was shouted at me from behind his desk in his upstairs office, while misquoting a scripture, and after stating to me that "no man putting his hand to the plow, and turning back, is fit for the kingdom of God."  He was referencing Luke when Jesus was reported as saying;

And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.

Jesus was speaking here to people who wanted to go finish other personal business before following him, not persons needing a temporary break because they had just left the hospital. And if we want to be ultra-literal about scripture it also says in Luke, the labourer is worthy of his hire. I was not ever paid to be a teacher in the ABC, and never expected payment. If we are to enforce this rule of being "worthy", every teacher in the ABC should then be paid for their time of service retroactively for all their "lost wages". Can't pick and choose which scriptures to enforce.

This encounter, where I was deemed "unworthy", took place after a bald face lie to entice me up a set of stairs on crutches to Bruce Leonard's office. The premise given was; "come and look at my new paint". After much urging I relented and struggled dangerously up the stairs on crutches to look at his "new paint job". There was actually no new paint to look at when I arrived, it had been yet another lie. His only purpose of enticing me up those stairs on crutches was to give me a severe tongue lashing as he sat behind his power desk. This type of behavior is not respectable for anyone on this planet, yet it is excused as "Bruce just hadn't grown enough in the Lord yet".  Had I fallen on those stairs, a real probability, I would have been seriously injured again. 

The blatant hypocrisy in this is that when my father had heart surgery he did not teach for quite an extended period. No one accused him of "turning back from the plough". When Gilbert Larson had thyroid surgery, and also when he was laid up with Legionnaire's disease, he did not teach for an extended period both times. No one accused him of "turning back from the plough". In fact, when Gilbert was suffering legionnaires disease he was having psychotic episodes, fever driven, and was calling myself and other persons insisting he had blasphemed the Holy Spirit and say other strange things. He was given time to recuperate. I can safely assume Bruce Leonard, after suffering a heart attack himself, also took some time away from teaching and was not accused of "turning back from the plough". Bruce Leonard presented himself as the "ruling elder" of Vancouver and also as an "apostle in waiting". To excuse this behavior as "not grown enough in the Lord yet" is ludicrous. Additionally I was at no time paid for my time spent studying and teaching and Bruce Leonard was not my boss.

Bruce Leonard attempted to persuade me multiple times my career position with the Federal government  was “evil”. A man of God, he believed, and stated to me often, should not have a career position. A "man of God", he insisted, should instead have a “job” in which they “work with their hands”.  He tried many times to persuade me to quit my Federal job and go find a “real job" working with my hands, "just like him", in a warehouse. Then, he stated,  I would finally be a "real man of God", just like him; sorting and loading plumbing supplies in a warehouse with a forklift." Where is this in scripture?  Luke was a physician, Matthew was a tax collector, Gilbert Larson was a licensed civil engineer drawing lines on paper in an office, Andy Atwell was a salesman working from an office and his car writing orders so someone else in a warehouse could then ship it for him. All of these people did not "work with their hands" yet, for some unknown reason, I was targeted that my profession was somehow "evil" since I did not "work with my hands".  This is an unfair balance. I will elaborate more on unfair balances later in this post.

This "working with my hands" idea was an impractical suggestion anyhow. I have a congenital hip defect called bilateral hip dysplasia which I unfortunately passed to one of my children. This defect does not allow me to work in a manual labor position long term and kept me out of gym during part of my high school years. It would have made me ineligible for military service had I tried to join. It is why I was told to stop working manual labor jobs in my mid twenties and seek out office work instead by doctor's orders. I went to school to learn banking then eventually moved into a government position. However, if I were to believe another part of the harassing I received from the "ruling elder" Bruce Leonard the advice from this physician was not valid since, per his telling, doctors are "evil" as well. Hospitals, he alleged to me often, are part of "Mystery Babylon" since they generally sit up on hills. He alleged this was proved in Revelation", or his interpretation of Revelation anyhow, as the woman on the hill. 

Odd there was no mention of this doctrine of doctors being evil when my father needed open heart surgery by a doctor, in a hospital, or Gilbert Larson needed surgery for thyroid cancer, by a doctor, in a hospital, or when Gilbert Larson needed hospitalization and care from a doctor in a hospital for Legionnaires Disease. I could give a hundred more examples of this blatant hypocrisy regarding doctors and hospitals but it is my understanding Bruce Leonard also sought out a doctor, in a hospital, when his heart failed him. This is hypocrisy and shows an extreme "lack of faith" if using Bruce Leonard's yardstick as the measure of faith. 

 

The scales are very unbalanced in the ABC and there is a great deal of hypocrisy among the leaders. It seemed I had an enormous target on my back at all times. There was a constant barrage of condemning words coming my direction until the day of this final ambush when I was finally, and forever, eternally judged, condemned, then discredited in the manner used by Diotrephes. It was  the final bullet in the gun. Since then many stories have been told about their actions and motivations but these are lies that are simply excused as "they hadn't grown enough in the Lord yet". However my one single sentence spoken, and misinterpreted by just one person, was alleged to be "blasphemy". This then made me instantly due for "eternal judgment", ex-communication, months of torment and the ripping apart of my life completely leaving it in shreds. I received no benefit of being seen as "having not grown enough in the Lord yet". This action of tearing my life apart was considered to be a "righteous deed", praise having even been heaped on the individual who misinterpreted my sentence and "turned me in" to the ruling elder. This, I will show, is an unfair balance.

I have conversed with other persons, across the globe, who also are "sons of a preacher man" and they too were held to a different, and extremely impossible, standard. They too had been harassed in this same manner by their father's religion. To have harassed me in this manner, on a consistent basis, can only be described as "evil", just as is described in the third letter of John when referring to the actions of Diotrephes. I mention here just a very few of the instances of spiritual harassment I was subjected to predating this ambush. This is irrational and wrong behavior which has been consistently excused by stating "they just hadn't grown enough in the Lord yet" or "they were just trying to do the right thing".  So was I on the day I stepped in to teach at the last minute after the person scheduled that night just didn't show up or even call.  But given other unusual instances which occurred in Vancouver this may have actually been by design and not by accident.

This is not about "growth in the Lord". This is about common decency and respect. This is about this type of abuse happening not just in the ABC but also in churches across the globe...and not just to "preacher's sons". In the name of God, no less!  I sometimes wonder how God feels about such bad behavior being excused by those using His name so vainly.

 

 

Both Bruce Leonard and Gilbert Larson felt I had only been able to purchase my home because I had “stolen from the tithe” like Ananias and Sapphira. It wasn't true. I discuss this in my post on "Tithing and Melchizedek". This fact was reported to me by a person very much in the know about the tithe and heard this directly from Gilbert Larson. Allegedly I would someday suddenly drop dead because of my "theft". This did not ever happen. I did not steal from the tithe and am now rapidly approaching age seventy. I'm still here. There have been others accused of the same thing and none of them fell down dead as well.

As I look back I am sure Bruce Leonard sees my leaving my career position as a victory, based on his philosophy of my career being "evil". The selling of my home I had just purchased, to escape all the torments coming to my door, likely seemed to both Bruce Leonard and Gilbert Larson just the natural outflow of my “sin of theft from the tithe”, not as a result of the undue, incessant and abusive harassment inflicted on me before, at, and after the ambush. They carry a very tall yardstick.

 

STORMS COME, STORMS GO

As  stated, I have frequently heard statements which excuse the abuses of the leaders. Phrases such as “we / they just hadn’t grown enough in the Lord yet”, or “things are different now and...” or “the Lord just hadn’t shown us / them a better way yet”, etc. etc. etc.  I have heard these statements spoken in the ABC since I was very young; a teenager, and am now nearly seventy. These phrases which excuse some very bad behavior continue to be spoken as excuse for bad behavior. These phrases only serve to  diminish the fact these things are very wrong. These are things which go against common decency. These are things that have been abusive to many for many years. These excuses continue to be used to explain away the absence of common human decency among the leadership. I need not be present to know nothing has changed since this is ingrained in the culture of non-repentance in the ABC. It is a false doctrine permanently baked into this cake that cannot be unbaked. 

These things in this church have always been this way. Abuse has become just another part of the accepted doctrine. But these abuses remains hidden beneath the surface to avoid accountability on the part of the abusers. For this reason these abuses will continue to  occur. These abuses end up covered over with lies and deceit to make everything appear calm on the surface to newcomers when, in fact, they are not and never have been. “For the babes” is the accepted statement when giving credence to keeping these abuses under wraps and sheltered from the eyes of newcomers. This way the “love-bombing” of newbies can occur unabated until the "babes" can be fully indoctrinated into accepting these things as "normal". They are not normal. Eventually, these "new babes" will learn to just stay silent and not make waves...or else. This is the same doctrine that allowed Diotrephes to ply his spiritually abusive behavior which John called out as "evil". Spiritual abuse can become baked in and it only takes just one hypocritical Pharisee to spoil the whole. This is not just an ABC issue, this doctrine is prevalent in parts of Christianity all across the globe and it is a doctrine of demons.

In the ABC there are a few hard-hearted men with outsized egos who perpetrate this violence on others, in the name of God no less. Jesus called these types of men “vipers" to their face. I do so as well. These men are vipers. Vipers, per Aubrey Sawyer, a world-renowned expert on such things, are “ambush predators...that lie in wait for their prey…”  This is precisely what these men do. They lie in wait, like ambush predators, then strike the heel when one least expects it. Their bite is full of self-righteous venom. Here is a little of what Jesus had to say about such men and he was quite straightforward in his disgust:

“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut the kingdom of heaven in front of people; for you do not enter it yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves…Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the Law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel! Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may also become clean. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. So you too, outwardly appear righteous to people, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs for the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, and you say, ‘If we had been living in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ So you testify against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of the guilt of your fathers. You snakes, you offspring of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell?

Jesus didn’t pull punches and went directly against the Pharisees of his day to their face. He warned those who followed him not to follow in their footsteps. My calling out the leaders of the ABC on this site, for their Pharisaical ways, their heavy-handed disciplinary tactics that destroy lives, their lying in wait as vipers, by exposing a tiny bit of the history of the ABC, is no different than Jesus calling out the Pharisees and High Priests of His day. It is no different than John calling out Diotrephes.

I did not just begin speaking out against these abuses after this ambush was perpetrated against me. That was just the catalyst, the final fed-up moment, that caused me to finally take a really good hard look at what the ABC was really all about and seek out the poisonous root the ABC is grounded in, dig it up, examine it, then tell of my findings. I encourage all to examine the roots as well.

My examination made me realize even if I had not been  eternally judged and ex-communicated in this manner, hanging around with the hope someday things would be different was just not plausible. I was in the company of Pharisees. I was not alone in my hope someday things would be different but it was a misguided hope I clung to. Many over the years secretly expressed these same feelings to me but stayed silent out of fear they too would be ex-communicated.

The first discipline occurred in the ABC when a man named Gary disagreed with my father on a very minor point. This was also the first great leaving, when people chose sides, developed “camps”,  then left en masse. My father tried to drag me to his side but I made it clear I was strictly in the middle and would not take sides. My neutrality was quite distressing to my father at the time, but it was to me a petty argument. The sticking point being when a person receives the Holy Spirit at baptism; was it going into the water, or coming up out of the water.  It was a pointless argument over words yet it escalated into a massive feud that lasted for many years. 

 

“)

LIES, LIES AND MORE LIES DO NOT EQUAL TRUTH

In San Diego I was once dragged to the ambush of a couple based fully on what I knew to be lies. I was unaware when I was asked to show up the reason for this"meeting" was to ambush this couple. At this ambush I was quite vocal in their defense since I knew, beyond any doubt, what was being said of them was simply not true. I was called a liar to my face in front of all. Directly after this ambush meeting concluded my father and stepmother pulled me into their van, told me everything I had spoken in defense of this couple was absolutely true and accurate but, I was told, “God just doesn't want that revealed yet”. I was stunned at that statement. I made it known then I could not agree with the premise that a discipline would be inflicted based completely on lies. My push back was not met well. God didn't worry about the truth any longer? Why would God deal with lies and cover up the truth to incriminate a couple for something they did not do?  I was quite confused then at this premise of making lies a refuge. It was cruel to this couple who were now spiritually incriminated with lies. This couple soon left the ABC broken and confused. This was not the only time I had seen this type of ambush based on lies so I should not have been as surprised. This was just the first time I had heard such a blatant declaration the "discipline" was knowingly based on lies, yet was being attributed to God's will.  I would soon after be disowned by my father and would be labeled as "rebellious". More on that later.

When  Andy Atwell and Mark met me at the IHOP restaurant, to allegedly talk about an accusation of blasphemy against a man named Wayne, I made it clear I would not support their heavy-handed doctrine of discipline. That has been my stance since I was in my twenties; neutrality. I had previously not been as openly vocal in my distaste of this "discipline" doctrine, even though I had seen so many lives destroyed, but I made it quite clear that late night at IHOP I would not be in their camp but I would also not be in Wayne's camp. I would only listen then stand for truth. It was for this reason, and not my alleged one sentence blasphemy in answer to a question at a meeting, for which I was truly “eternally judged”. My exact words to them that night were; I will not be on Wayne’s side, I will not be on your side, wherever the truth falls, that is where I will be. That is my exact statement and it is this statement that abruptly ended the conversation. Both Mark and Andy Atwell stood in unison at my statement of neutrality and left the restaurant  in a bit of a huff.  But this is likely what they came to hear from me and this was was the snare they were setting. I was about to be labeled again, put out under false charges, and anything I did or said from that day forward would become suspect and tainted by false allegations. It was quite effective.

I have since learned this deceit and ambush formula is used in many abusive churches across the globe and is not indigenous to the ABC alone. It is a doctrine of demons.

They had to kill Jesus when He stood against the Pharisees and other religious leaders of His day. Jesus talked of how they killed the prophets for the exact same reason. In essence, these men set out with the intent to “kill the messenger” with their false accusation of blasphemy against me. This was followed by eternal condemnation, eternal ex-communication and months of torment from their, what one psychologist termed in a book about this type of abuse, "flying monkeys". This is a reference to the Wizard of Oz story.

The subject of our conversation that night at IHOP, Wayne, was not even present at the meeting which purportedly had been called to “talk to him about his "blasphemy”. It had been yet another lie, just like the previous ambushes I had witnessed based on lies. This type of lying is very prevalent among the leadership of the ABC. It is excused as being necessary to "protect the body". Never mind that Revelation references all liars will have their place in the "lake of fire". I truly worry about those who have made lies their refuge.

The person alleging I had a "root of bitterness" also wrote; "I am currently a very active member in the body of Christ (as scripture refers to us) and don’t see any other way out there that cares about truth as much as these people."  What is most telling in that statement is the word "us". This indicates exactly what I have been saying about this "us vs. them" outlook in the ABC. The ABC sees itself as THE body of Christ, not as A member OF the body of Christ globally.  If one equates a deep knowledge of the Bible through intense Greek word studies as "truth", I wholeheartedly agree with that statement. The ABC does a wonderful job teaching those things called the "Foundation Truths" from Hebrews 6:1-2. These are important principles for sure, and the ABC does well in relating these subjects in great detail, but they are remiss on teaching the other necessary principles of growth;justice, mercy, faith, love and tolerance. 

Jesus, when speaking to the crowds around him,  told them the scribes and the Pharisees could teach them a thing or two and they should listen. But he also told them they should not follow after them or their example because they bind heavy burdens on people that are difficult to  bear. I have no contention with the basic foundational doctrines the ABC teaches, except they do make these things much more complex than they really are. The ways of God are simple and easily understood. They ignore completely this simplicity that is in the true message of Jesus and they lack tolerance for those they perceive hold a different view. They also feel their "seven step" method of salvation, provable only through use of a series of modern books, is THE door to God and feel they have the exclusive franchise on that door. They don't. Jesus instructed us that the Pharisees were self-righteous hypocrites and should not be followed. The leaders of the ABC lay burdens that should not be borne on people and one should instead seek humility instead of the ways of the Pharisee.

Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples,  saying: “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat.  Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do.  For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.  But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments. They love the best places at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues,  greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men, ‘Rabbi, Rabbi.’  But you, do not be called ‘Rabbi’; for One is your Teacher, the Christ, and you are all brethren.  Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven.  And do not be called teachers; for One is your Teacher, the Christ. But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant.  And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

Like the Pharisees Jesus referred to, the ABC has forgotten the weightier matters; Justice, Mercy and Faith on God. They have regressed to following parts of the old covenant feasts and practices instead of focusing on removing the hypocritical leaven of the Pharisees from their tainted feast.  Jesus was clear on this to his disciples when the crowds surrounded him. 

In the mean time, when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that they trode one upon another, he began to say unto his disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.  Gospel of Luke

In my time in the ABC there were indeed moments of great fellowship with the members I sincerely enjoyed. However, the leadership has taken on the responsibility of labeling those members they feel are the "approved" and have decided which of those members are the "unapproved". They base this decision solely on their personal prejudices alone. This was one of the flaws in the Corinthian church as well and this was the evil Diotrephes practiced.

Now in giving these instructions I do not praise you, since you come together not for the better but for the worse.  For first of all, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it.  For there must also be factions among you, that those who are approved may be recognized among you.  First letter to the Corinthians

If these men truly want to be great, they need to learn to be a servant first, not a Pharisee dictator who lords over others. There have been a great many lies told to sideline, or completely demolish, individuals who did not fall into lockstep with the views of these leaders. This is far from living in truth and wisdom. It is not coming to reason together as they purport to represent. It is not excusable with a covering statement of "not yet growing enough in the Lord yet". Truth is truth but truth is not knowledge. Truth resides only in wisdom.

Apparently some have been told I just got mad at the ambush then left with no intent to return. This too is a blatant lie. I never raised my voice and barely spoke. When I did try to speak I was forbidden to speak or defend myself in any way. Yet, still, when I left I gave everyone a genuine hug and left in peace knowing that, given the “eternal” nature of this false judgment passed on my soul that day by these arrogant self-righteous Pharisees, who had not even let me speak a word in my own defense, there was no coming back from this...ever.  There has been a consistent pattern of attempting to discredit me and keep me silent, yet no one ever seems to ask why that is. Curious that.

These men do not have the authority to pass such an eternal judgment on my soul, as they falsely assume they do. It was really all hot air and bluster meant to intimidate me. In God’s eyes it was meaningless but it had the desired effect among the members of the ABC who were afraid to question the motivations of these leaders, or inquire too deeply of the facts. This is "groupthink" but more on "groupthink" later. There was undoubtedly great fear among many knowing that should they ever speak up themselves, they too would be afforded similar treatment. There is indication people were afraid of the evil perpetrated by Diotrephes too. 

This worked to intimidate me for a time, but once I was able to settle my emotions, take a step back, size up the ABC denomination from a distance, see it for what it really is, then look into the true history, putting aside all of the accepted myth, I could see clearly the immense harm they had been doing to so many people for so many years. I knew I had to speak up. 

A STEP BACK

My father began in the ministry as a youth pastor at a Presbyterian church in Tacoma Washington, not long before I was born. At some point when I was an infant we moved to the Eugene Oregon area. I was still a small child when my father began assisting pastor Donald McGregor at Noti Pentecostal Church in Noti Oregon. I was a young boy when he paired up with James A Watt on numerous projects at Broadway Tabernacle, Philadelphia Bible College, KGDN radio, Union Gospel Mission and many other church affiliates in the Seattle area. I was just a tween when my father leased, then pastored a steepled church at the cemetery on San Jan Island (pictured to the right). I was twelve when my father abandoned my mother and I to the street so he could start his new church, what would eventually come to be called "The Assembly of the Body of Christ" in the living room of the Wilcrest Apartments in Seattle. I was but a young teen when I ended up back at my father's house, just a few weeks after "The Group" first started. "The Group", as the ABC was first called during the turbulent Jesus People era began with just a couple college kids.  I was not yet eighteen when my father, without any discussion or forewarning, dropped me at the curb of the apartments my oldest sibling managed then told me this is where I would now live. He let me know then he was leaving in the bus the very next day and I would not be going with him. I had assumed I would, having not yet turned age eighteen. I was a very young man when "The Group", born out of the "Jesus People" era and populated first with very yound members, became the more staid and legally incorporated "Assembly of the Body of Christ".  All of this youthfulness during the birth and construction of the church added to my being somewhat clueless about the truth of the origins. Only after this life devastating ambush did I begin to look diligently at the origins. I was a little unsettled at first when the truth did not  match the story I had been told growing up.

When I discovered the ABC was hitting the airwaves to draw in more people unawares, I decided then I needed to begin exposing some of the truths of the origins and the oppressive nature of some of the ABC doctrines. This in order to dispel some of the myths and warn people away. This led me to eventually connect with others in oppressive churches like the ABC all across the globe.  I conversed and read about others who had similar experiences to my own. I discovered these doctrines of abuse are nothing new and they stem from a false doctrine practiced in many churches, in many places, and have been hurting many people for many years. Our fight is not against people directly though. I do not have bitterness toward any single person, as is alleged by "anonymous "B"". These persons who defend these practices are simply misguided. They may perhaps also suffer a bit of "Stockholm Syndrome" as well. Certainly the ones who look away when others are put through severe life pain match those participants in the Milgram experiment mentioned below.

There are several persons in the ABC I would never trust again. They have proven they knowingly, and deliberately, make lies their refuge to protect and defend their self-righteous ego and paycheck. They follow in the footsteps of Diotrephes. The rest in that room the day of the ambush, and persons elsewhere, are  just followers who have lost all sense of evenly assessing facts independently and are lost in the pull of groupthink and peer pressure.  Like those participating in the Stanley Milgram experiment (see video below), these persons are caught  up in accepting "groupthink" as their truth over what is actual truth. That is a dangerous place to inhabit.  More on that later.

 I have a strong contention with the false doctrines and practices which allow these men to dictate to, lord over, and torment others. It is a misplaced faith in man on the part of these followers. This is “spiritual abuse” they practice and it occurs all across the globe. It is a doctrine of the Pharisees, not in line with the message left by Christ to ease burdens, build each other up, feed and nourish souls.  It is devilish.

 

MUDSLINGER and CLARIFYING SOME POINTS

It was phrased to me at one point, years ago, this site was just intended to sling mud. I never intended to sling mud at any one person, although some may interpret it that way if the information seems uncomfortable to them. Sometimes the truth is uncomfortable when it pops our balloon of myth.  I name only those who inflict pain on other person’s souls and only as a warning for others to tread carefully when dealing with these people, just as persons alive in Diotrephes day were warned. 

I have named as few persons as possible, while still conveying an efficient message of this warning. If I actually did choose to sling mud, I assure you there is plenty of mud I could sling. I have not. Some prefer myth over reality because it avoids conflict with the actual facts. I have no doubt it would likely not be believed if I did print my entire story anyhow. In science this is called "confirmation bias". I will discuss this in more detail a bit later in this post but, for now, understand we are all afflicted with confirmation bias to varying degrees. It is part of human nature to seek out what reassures our own beliefs, even if those beliefs do not actually match the reality. We like to feel comfortable in our beliefs and confirming our biases is a way we avoid conflict in our minds and avoid the discomfort of change. I assure you, when I sought out the truth about the ABC, my father's history, and the like, I suffered a great deal of discomfort facing that reality.

"Condemnation without investigation is the height of ignorance" - Albert Einstein

"People only see what they are prepared to see." Ralph Waldo Emerson

I witnessed many things at Apex Air Park, in Santa Cruz, and in San Diego, which would have been considered crimes. Things which could have sent persons to jail or prison had the individual(s) been caught. Child torture, international smuggling, tax evasion and financial fraud being just the very least of these things. It has been said I have aught against my father and am just “acting out” to spite him, even though he is long dead. I assure you this is not true. This allegation is not backed up by any fact, other than that my father disowned me in my thirties for what he considered my "rebellion". I did rebel against the stranglehold my father had on my adult life but at no point did I rebel against God or truth. My father had reasons beyond this assumed "rebellion" to discredit me and push me away. It would serve no purpose now to disclose this widely since he is long deceased.

My father disowned me the night I tried to speak to him, in private, about some of the illegalities I personally witnessed, along with some illegalities related to me by another person. I came to him in peace that night but he, knowing I was there to speak to him about these illegalities, adamantly refused to speak with me. He instead ran out of the house, jumped in his van, drove across the lawn and left deep furrows in the moist grass. He then sent word, through a teenage girl as messenger, he never wanted to see or speak to me again. And he didn't. He disappeared forever out of my life that night. But that was his choice, not mine. I heard of many times he was just a few miles from my house but he never called or visited. It was a repeat of San Juan Island when he abandoned me then refused to pay for my court ordered care. He never called or visited. What is commonly referred to now as a "deadbeat dad".  I held nothing against my father for this, not then, not now, not ever, but it is a hurt that will never leave.

Just a few weeks prior to this disowning, in a rather emotional meeting at Casa Grande, perhaps about a year or so post his recovery from heart surgery, everyone began to spontaneously give each other hugs.  I approached my father in this meeting, tried to give him a hug and had every intent to tell him I loved him, hoping this would maybe break some of his ice toward me that had been there since I was age twelve when he abandoned me, leaving me stranded on that island. He simply pushed me away, then turned and hugged another person instead. I understood the reasons behind this "pushing away" that night and it was not because I was a "rebellious" son.

So, I ask this question; who in this scenario was holding a “root of bitterness”, if one is considering a “grudge” to be what this bitter root is? My father held a grudge, and bitterness, in his heart towards me, and others, for many many years. Even after his death he still held this grudge against me when he left instructions with David North I was not to be made welcome at his funeral.  That is some very deep hate and not in any way the example of a "man of God". It was not, as some have alleged, because he had not yet "grown enough in the Lord".

My only "crime" was that I had grown up to be an adult and I was no longer just following his every demand when he commanded me as my "father in the Lord" to do things against my sense of decency. I knew many things about his personal life he would not want revealed and he did this to silence me. I was an adult then with children of my own. Home had left me quite long before when the bus rolled out of the Monroe house and headed south, leaving me behind at my oldest siblings house at age seventeen. My father held these types of grudges against many other people, not just me.

I have heard it said many times my “father just hadn’t grown enough in the Lord yet…” to explain why he slammed me against that wall on San Juan Island, when I was age twelve, then abandoned me and my mother to the street in the middle of winter, without any explanation, leaving us with no money to even buy food, then refused to pay a penny of support for me. He was okay with my mother and I living in a basement supply closet of a hotel as our only refuge from the street during the night. In the daytime we walked the streets of Bellingham for hours, dropping into warm places such as the library, free museum and stores to do our best to stay warm since it was December and very cold. I know the plight of the homeless child who must walk the street and ride buses to stay warm during the day because, for about six weeks, I lived it. My father did all these things so he could start this new church, the Assembly of the Body of Christ, in his living room and so he could declare himself to be an apostle and a "man of God". He would lead this church until the day he collapsed and died in a Mexican restaurant in his early sixties. He performed marriages, provided counseling services and as a “man of God” and "apostle" felt called to write books, serve as an itinerant minster up and down the west coast of the USA, start a missionary program in Mexico, and minister in many other places. How then can we just excuse these rather egregious things he perpetrated against his entire family and others, solely for the purpose of starting his new church? How can we excuse this by saying he had "just not yet grown enough in the Lord"?  I have witnessed many moral families, in what the ABC would consider “the world”, who treat each other with much more love and care than this.  Families in "the world" would regard the actions of my father toward me as abusive, irresponsible behavior, wrong and unacceptable, even if they had never “grown in the Lord”, or likely even if they were full atheist. Brian Wilson of Beach Boys fame even understood this very concept: 

"If there's not love present, it's much, much harder to function. When there's love present, it's easier to deal with life." - Brian Wilson

The ABC began with a doctrine of abandonment and remains a church that will abandon anyone who appears to question too much or is perceived as a threat. I feel John, the one who wrote about Diotrephes, would fully agree this is pure evil. Perhaps my words sound angry. T they are not. They are written in the hope people will wake to the reality of how it all began and wake to the fact leaders of the ABC can be severely abusive when challenged. My only hope is some find their way to the actual path of those five most important things I wrote about in a previous post; justice, mercy, faithfulness, love and tolerance.

All of what I write about is now water that passed under the bridge long ago. For the most part it is now mostly history. I am one who strongly believes one must view history to avoid making the same mistakes repeatedly. We must not bury the history of any church and examine the roots of any person we follow. Given the excuses made for decades of abusive behavior, it is all relevant history since it shows proof of the depth of the myth, the "confirmation bias" and the "groupthink" associated with, and occurring in, the ABC.  It is not much different than the figure of those three monkeys in a row protecting themselves from seeing, hearing or speaking the truth.  It is deliberate ignorance and one must not be deliberately ignorant.

ROOT OF BITTERNESS-PART DEUX

Referring back to the principal question of this post: “Do I have a root of bitterness as has been alleged by anonymous “B”?  Knowing, and acknowledging, the true facts of the beginning of the ABC is not bitter, that's just honest.

My basic contention is some have elevated my father Ramon A Haas, Gilbert Larson, and the ABC, the church my father started, to the status of being incapable of  being wrong. Incapable of making a mistake because after all, it is assumed, they are "doing God service. My father was quite human, his church quite deficient and some of his personal actions, unknown to most, were very far below that of a "man of God". What he started and some of the doctrines he instated are not Godly yet they are still being carried forward by Gilbert Larson and others.  As a result, more will continue to be hurt.

The accepted old covenant reference for “root of bitterness” stems from Deuteronomy which states: “I am making this covenant with you so that no one among you — no man, woman, clan, or tribe — will turn away from the Lord our God to worship these gods of other nations, and so that no root among you bears bitter and poisonous fruit”  then states: “Those who hear the warnings of this curse should not congratulate themselves, thinking, ‘I am safe, even though I am following the desires of my own stubborn heart.’ This would lead to utter ruin!” 

This original doctrine regarding "root of bitterness"  has nothing to do with holding hurt, or grudge, against another person or persons. Although a grudge is not a good thing, it is not what is being referred to when referencing a “root of bitterness”. This instead has to do with being rooted, being founded, in other gods or false doctrines which then spread this poison to others, destroying their faith. A tree with roots grounded in poison will create poisonous fruit. Those who eat of this fruit will become sick from the poison taken up by these roots. The ABC is like that tree with roots sunk into bitterness from the very beginning. The fruit it produces is a slow poison to those who eat of it.

There is no greater false god than the god of self. To be lifted up with pride, to be arrogant in purpose, to feel one has authority to lord over another person, to be stubborn and stiff-necked in doctrine, to be self-righteous, to feel one can pass judgment on another's soul, infiltrates what was once healthy tissue and eventually destroys all love and tolerance. The fruit growing from this tree having this bitter root may appear clean, but it is not clean. This bitter poison will eventually cause, as is stated, “utter ruin”. 

In the forests around where I live are giant perfectly good looking trees that will suddenly fall over.  When I hike I listen for tell-tell signs of these sick trees, usually a sound of cracking and snapping. This sound is indicative of a tree that is in danger of falling. I have only once been in the woods when a tree suddenly fell near me, but I have seen the evidence of the plenty that have already fallen. When examining these fallen trees you will find they have perfectly good bark on the outside but inside  is a total ruin of spongy material no longer capable of holding the tree upright (see photo below). These are trees that have been sapping up illness, usually a fungus, from the earth beneath for many years causing it to decay on the inside. On the surface the tree appears healthy but inside is a real spongy mess. 

This tree above, for many decades, stood tall, it's sickness not visible on the surface. But this is a tree sick from the inside out and one day, it just fell over. Only then did the sickness inside become evident. So it is with churches afflicted with this bitter poison like Diotrephes. All may appear well on the outside, but the tree is sick inside and is spongy or even hollow. One need only look back at the episodes of great turmoil and leavings in the ABC to see this church, "The Assembly of the Body of Christ", incorporated  in Washington state, has been firmly rooted in bitterness from the beginning and never exhibited true faith, true love, true tolerance, true justice or true mercy.

We must never lose the understanding we are all but dust and lack full understanding of pretty much everything. We must seek humbleness in that lack of understanding and must give grace to each other because God gives grace to us if we are humble. Knowledge puffs up, just like yeast. More on that yeast later. When we present ourselves in a manner that says we have a complete understanding of all things, even the hidden things of a man's heart, and can therefore make eternal judgments of another man’s soul, and pass false self-righteous judgments on another, we are showing clear evidence we are rooted in that bitter poison of self worship idolatry.

We are closer to God when we are asking questions than when we think we have the answers.”

Abraham Joshua Heschel--Polish American Rabbi (1907-1972)

We all have a bitter root or two. Even if we lay a perfect foundation we all still have a tendency to build parts of our spiritual house with wood, hay and stubble, all of which will burn in the end. Sure, we can “buy” gold, silver and precious gems instead, but these are not things we have cut or chopped with our own hands and part of our nature likes to see things of our own design in our spiritual house. So, we add a few or a lot of those things that will burn as well. That's not desirable, but it's actually OK because we have a mediator who evens things out on the near term.

If we use gold, silver and precious stones to build our house we will find a reward but the fact remains in every house there are articles of wood hay and stubble, along with the gold silver and precious stones. Some houses have more, some less. The currency we use to "buy" these precious metals and gems tried in the fire is "humility". It costs nothing to be humble and requires no work or labor on our part. Even so, our human nature still wants to see the works of our own hands in our “house” So, we work away at chopping and forming wooden doctrines we can then use to decorate by our own design. But all these things are temporary and will burn in the end. Only wisdom and understanding will survive in the end and knowledge will burn.

How much better to get wisdom than gold! And to get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver. Pr. 16:16

Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.  1 Corinthians

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; Proverbs 3

This false doctrine that teaches leaders have domination over the presbytery is idolatry and stems directly from this bitter root that poisons. We are never to “lord over” another individual, no matter our perceived station in life. This idolatry of lording over another person is made of rotted wood, not gold, silver or precious stones. This doctrine will not survive into the eternal and does not belong in the present. In fact, with whatever measure we use to measure others, this is the exact same measure we will be measured with in the end. I wrote about this in detail in my post about yardsticks. 

Some who profess to have amassed spiritual gold only appear this way because they have fattened themselves on the backs of those they were called to protect. They layer a bit of pyrite as gold over their wooden doctrines so they appear more righteous than they actually are. They wear this falsehood like a gold ring and are, like Diotrephes, self-indulgent. They even use those around them to do this work for them, then steal their pay. They murder those who are innocent and who did them no harm. They are like those spoken about in the letter James wrote to the Hebrew people. As I will discuss later, the end for those rich in their self-righteousness will not be good.

Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you.  Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes.  Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you.

 

BUILDING HOUSES 

Scripture tells us it is the foundation which brings us our salvation and not our house. This was told to the people at Corinth in a letter.  

For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building. According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

The house we build determines our reward but it can never bring us salvation. That is fortunate since  those who build their house completely out of  the wooden doctrines of self-righteousness, religious arrogance, spiritual abuse and lording over others will still find salvation in the end. However, in other ways, it will not play well for these persons in the eternal. They may fortunately survive the fire but only because they have a solid foundation. They will suffer great loss and lose any reward as their house is fully consumed. Self-righteousness can be a seriously bad matter. 

A quick scan through the 23^rd chapter of the book of Matthew will show the depth of the Pharisee’s self-righteous and false piousness. It’s worth a read in its entirety. It is these self-ambitious wood builders like Diotrephes, who “lord over” others, that are thoroughly rooted in that bitter poison. It is not those who cry out to expose untruths, injustice and the abusive tactics of control used by the likes of the Pharisees and Diotrephes who have a bitter root. Warning others not to follow in that same path, or not to get caught in the trap of the Pharisees, is boldness, not bitterness, and was actually a great part of the message Jesus put forward. Refer to my post on the wise and foolish woman for more on this subject. 

My father, when he was alive, had a recurring dream of a man standing in front of an open pit trying to persuade a host of blinded people passing by to stop before they fell into the pit straight ahead of them. This man, in his recurring dream, stood with arms spread wide telling all those walking by toward the pit not to go any further, but they all ignored him. My father saw himself as that man in the dream but I always saw it as those trying to stop people from walking the path to self-righteous idolatry which leads directly to a pit dug with self-righteousness and misplaced ambition. It is this type of pit the Pharisees dug to entrap others. Warning others not to advance further toward this pit of self ambition and self-righteousness is not bitterness, that's caring.

Whoever causes the upright to go astray in an evil way,
He himself will fall into his own pit;
But the blameless will inherit good. Pr. 28

The letter from James spells this out as well:

Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth.  Such "wisdom" does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.  For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.

Juxtapose these good things mentioned above;

• humility
• peace
• considerate
• mercy
• impartiality 

with those evil things on the opposite side:

• selfish ambition
• envy
  

Envy may seem a strange one on that list, but it was this envy that drove Herod to order Jesus dead shortly after his birth. It was this same envy that drove the religious rulers to seek the death of Jesus at the hands of the legal system. It was this same envy that caused Joseph's brothers to throw him into a pit so they could steal his cloak and gain favor. It is this same envy that can drive a person to kill and maim an other person in the name of God. 

Humility comes only from the wisdom from God. Wisdom and humility are the exact opposite of selfish ambition and self-righteousness. Humility is how we purchase gold, silver and precious stones to build our spiritual house properly. Where there is judgment, envy and selfish ambition you will find the rotted wood of disorder and evil practices. This is like that tree rotting from the inside out in the forest and this tree of self-righteous ambition will not survive into the eternal. In fact, the Pharisee who prayed to himself how perfectly he "served God" is the one who walked away unjustified. The "sinner" tax collector, who showed no works of piety or Godly practice went away rewarded simply because of his humility and nothing else.  Wisdom from above is pure, peace loving, considerate, full of mercy and impartial. Wisdom is to know and understand the full grace of God which is infinite belongs to everyone. God will show mercy to whoever God chooses to show mercy. It is not our role to decide who is a sheep and who is a goat a weed or a good seed. Never.

 

ROOT OF BITTERNESS-PART TRES

So, back to this allegation of my alleged “root of bitterness”. The New Covenant scripture most often quoted to back up this doctrine is found in the letter to the Hebrew people. “See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled.”

In context that would read:

Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord:  looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled;  lest there be any fornicator or ^]profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright.  For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.

This is not speaking of a person who speaks out against injustices, or is alleged to have a grudge. More on that later. This context begins with an admonition to "pursue peace" then warns "don't fall short of the grace of God". I have seen plenty of injustice meted out in the ABC, and experienced plenty myself. There is no peace being pursued in these endeavors. There is no grace being afforded by the leaders of the ABC in these practices. 

I have no bitterness toward those men who sat staring at me wordless at that final ambush. These men were just following orders and they were unknowingly caught in a snare. A couple saw the snare as it was being constructed and so stayed away from this ambush. Those men participating have lost all power to examine the evidence for themselves and acted without knowledge or wisdom. They had become ensnared by these Pharisees, these men behaving like Diotrephes. They were "drinking the Kool-Aid" of those tapped into this bitter root of selfish ambition and self-righteousness. I have only sorrow for those poisoned with this selfish doctrine. They have lost all ability to look in the mirror and cannot see there is a log blinding their vision of truth and wisdom.  I was once just like those who stood by, holding the coats, sitting mostly silent, while those around me were tapped into this root of selfish ambition and flogged others with bitter words, causing their souls to become injured or completely destroyed. These leaders are following after the way of Diotrephes and the Pharisee. It is the wrong path. They are living conformed to the way of the worldly self-righteousness rather than in the way of justice, mercy and true faith, as Jesus taught. They have put their faith in a lie. Those Pharisees who perpetrate these actions, without repentance, will be held to account in the last day as thieves who entered the sheepfold improperly to steal and to kill. 

Everyone proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord; Though they join forces, none will go unpunished. Pr. 16:5

 

CONFORMITY  

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.  And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.   From the letter to the Romans

"Conformity” is human condition affecting nearly all of mankind and can be an overwhelming, deadly plague to those who exist in a "groupthink" environment, like the ABC.  “Conformity bias” is prevalent, not just in religious circles, but also in many political and social circles as well.  Below is a seven minute, somewhat dry, video that defines some of these terms:

When individuals no longer act and think independently, they begin to move as a cancerous mass of humanity with just one goal and purpose and that is to have their viewpoint win--at all cost. Those who choose anything even slightly different than the accepted norm will find they become the "enemy" and are then excluded as being unfit or unrighteous. This was the trap Diotrephes fell into as he began to inflict those around him with the poisonous fruit of his arrogance. Conformity causes individuals, who normally live together at peace under most other circumstances, to become blinded by the social, political and religious pressures around them. Conformity has the power to persuade persons, even without words, to act out in violence against others simply enjoying their peace. Violence does not always require physical contact, as I referenced earlier when discussing "violent speech", words too can be just as violent.

Conformity causes a person to align their beliefs with that of a group, rather than to think and reason independently. It blinds a person to a true or logical conclusion based on fact. Test all things as it states in the letter to the Thessalonians.  Conformity is a cancer that blocks the ability to make good decisions based on simple reasoning, and makes it difficult to choose ones words or actions wisely. Conformity will punish any person who falls out of lock step with the group. This results in persons being fearful to speak up out of fear of retribution from those like Diotrephes who have given themselves the power to condemn. Conformity can often take persons to a place they would not normally tread.  But speaking truth to this power is always necessary.

Refer again to my post where I tell of the Stanley Milgram experiment. This experiment demonstrated conformity in real time. Social, political and religious pressures are very real and these pressures can become dangerous, or even deadly as witnessed at Jonestown in Guyana. Most persons are followers so they tend to follow those persons who present themselves as leader, even if that leader does not truly know the correct way. Many tragedies have occurred because masses of people followed the one who appeared to be leading them to rescue when, in fact, this "leader" was clueless in the correct way.  Unfortunately, leaders often have oversized egos and will even weaponize their followers against each other, causing them to act against their own best interest. They do this strictly to enhance their own position of power and it is because they have been lifted up with pride.  All are equal in Christ and there is but one Chief Shepherd. Hirelings may care more for themselves than they do the sheep so they should not always be trusted. Hirelings do not necessarily speak for God and may, in their selfish ambition, even be leading sheep to a pit they have dug.Test all things. Hold only to that which is true.

Conformity will cause a person to adapt their behavior and outlook based on group influence and not reason. This is why those who showed up at my door claiming I was somehow suddenly overnight a “sinner” could not even explain why I was suddenly a "sinner". They were simply following orders, conforming to the will of the "leaders", Bruce Leonard and Gilbert Larson. As good "Brucetians" they had become incapable of using independent reasoning to discern the facts before passing a blind judgment. 

When the “leaders” insisted people would sin against God if they continued to speak with me, nearly all followed this order as well without question.  This is "conformity", this is "groupthink" and this is not a Godly perspective. The true "body of Christ" exhibits complete and utter diversity, not "conformity" and "groupthink". Conformity is a poisonous root which can take hold and "groupthink" behavior can cause tragedy, such as the massacre at Jonestown in Guayana.  At Jonestown, the poison became all too real and there was massive physical death in a single day. Those who feel the conformity existing in the ABC could not someday lead to this type of mass behavior are mistaken. It already has. There has been no passing out of suicidal and murderous Kool-Aid. No massacre of a senator on an airstrip, YET!. There have been many souls crushed beyond repair by the harsh false disciplines placed by these arrogant leaders of the ABC and that is tantamount to murder of their soul and peace. After these souls have been crushed to death the leaders then place blame on the abused, rather than on the abuser who meted out injustice, just like did Diotrephes.

We cannot ignore the complexities of the human being God created when understanding any other person.  To do so we begin to be isolationist and exclude all others who have even slightly different perspectives than our own. "Groupthink" is deep rabbit hole that, once descended, is difficult to withdraw from. There is a great seven minute video which addresses this part of this phenomenon:

I was warned many times by Jim Shierman; the man who was ABC treasurer until his passing;  that "things in Vancouver are done Bruce's way" and I "need to learn how to do everything Bruce's way or I will someday pay the price". Of all the times I was called on the carpet, insulted, and raked over the coals by Bruce Leonard, I never  made the connection on how not falling into lock step with "Bruce's way" would someday cause me as much turmoil as it did.  I did not understand I would be so viciously attacked by so many acting in lockstep with "Bruce's way". But, despite that, I could never be a "Brucetian" because my loyalties lie elsewhere with God and truth.

I did not understand then Bruce Leonard was so very similar to Diotrephes and had the full weight and power of Gilbert Larson, considered to be "the apostle", behind him. This gave him  great power over men's souls and empowered him to commit heinous acts of self righteousness. If I had it to do all over again, I would not do much different. I came only speaking truth, rejected the conformity I saw around me, and this was the price I paid for staying with truth over "groupthink". 

"Groupthink" is a bitter poison that can lead to actual death just like at Jonesetown. But, even at a lesser degree, it can create extra burden in a person's life. Jesus came to take away burdens, not add to.  In the universal body of Christ there are many members and each is different, none conforming to each other. Conformity is deadly to any biological structure which relies on diversity for its very life. Conformity is a cancer. Your kidneys and hand will never meet but they are still both important to you, despite their diverse design. The true "body of Christ", globally, relies on absolute diversity to function correctly. Again, conformity is a mass, a cancer, on the body and must be excised.

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Letter to the Ephesians

So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.  First letter from Peter to the elect   

Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses. Proverbs 10

The heart knows its own bitterness, and no stranger shares its joy. Proverbs 14:10

Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; He. 12:15

Hebrews 12:15, is often used by spiritual abusers to persuade victims they should shut up, accept any abuse, then “turn the other cheek” so they can be abused all over again and have the other cheek reddened as well. They insist we must “forgive the abuser”, them!, even if the abuser is not in any way repentant of their abusive actions. They insist one must accept ever more abuse without end, turning the cheek over and over and over again.  "Turning the other cheek" does not mean one must  accept repeated abuse perpetrated by an abuser. The abuser, lost in their self-righteousness, feels if a person balks at their abuse this is “sin”. It is not sin to speak  against abuses and abusers, it is boldness. If it were sin then the writer who revealed the ways of Diotrephes would be in sin.

My father often quoted, "Silence is not always golden, sometimes it's yellow." In other words "cowardly".  When we read Revelation, we see cowardice is actually one of those things that can cause one to enter the "lake of fire".  

"But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

We do not wrestle each other, we wrestle against the "groupthink" and self righteous  principalities and powers poisoning the whole which then allows some to act like Diotrephes. We are to provoke each other to love and good works. If one sees themselves as a "father figure" the letter written to the Ephesians tells fathers they should not provoke their children. If one is a "hireling" they too should not provoke others to wrath.

Jesus walked away many times when he was facing abuse by the religious zealots of his day. He was quite vocal against the injustices of the Pharisees and other religious leaders and did not conform. He set an example for us to not be cowardly when faced with spiritual abusers.  It is OK to walk away from the abuses. It is OK to warn against those who are poisoned by this root of self-righteousness and self-ambition. In fact, it is our duty.

 

"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to think at all."– Hypatia

ROOT OF BITTERNESS-PART FOUR 

If one is hurting, in pain or weakened by these abuses, the spiritual abuser will then point to this as evidence of their “root of bitterness”. It is subterfuge. It is a trick used by these abusers to cover their tracks and prevent others from talking about the abuses they have witnessed and / or suffered. If one speaks out to unveil these abuses they are then labeled as being “unforgiving” or having a “root of bitterness”. Their speaking out is not declared as a warning to others that the leader has stumbled into self-righteous behavior but it is instead couched as “defiling others” away from the leaders seeming spiritually superior influence, which is assumed to be "Godly" but is not. How convenient for that gaslighting abuser! This allows them to abuse many people over and over again, year after year, with complete impunity. They are not guiltless.

Anyone who feels they have full weight and authority to judge another individual, eternal or not, is lacking in humility and is full of this poison. As I have repeated many times, my fight is not against these persons directly. These abusive persons are only able to act out their abuses because they have been empowered by a misguided and egotistical doctrine of self-righteousness supported by those who excuse their behavior and are enablers of their errant actions. They share in the guilt. I have that finger pointed at me for my past inaction. And just like in Jeremiah, the abuser is allowed to continue because "my people love to have it so". This is wrong. This behavior should not be accepted. This doctrine must be declared false so it can no longer empower these "leaders" to abuse. These leaders, and their followers, need to find repentance enough to acknowledge this is a false doctrine. This false doctrine fulfills the scripture that says "They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.  It is interesting to note the first part of this scripture talks of ex-communication, in the name of God. But this is actually in the name of the god of self, not the name of the God in the heavens.

One need not kill the body to kill a person's soul:

The one who does not love remains in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that eternal life does not reside in a murderer.  First letter of John

Two of the three weightier matters of the law are “justice” and “mercy”. When I see a doctrine of injustice that gives authority to an abuser who knows no mercy I will speak against that unjust doctrine and shed light on that person perpetrating this false doctrine because it is wrong. I hearken back again to how Jesus and John the Baptist spoke to these vipers:

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore, bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”  Gospel of Matthew

 

 

YEAST 

When they went across the lake, the disciples forgot to take bread ^“Be careful,” Jesus said to them. “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”  Gospel of Matthew

Faith can be the size of a mustard seed yet grow to be very large. Alternatively, the teachings of the Pharisees can also be very small and they too can grow very large. But this is a largeness affected by yeast and not by the giving of life. 

 

 

 

 

Yeast is a very small, practically microscopic, organism. Jesus likened this bitterness to yeast. The teachings of the Pharisees, like knowledge, puffs up rather than causes actual growth. A loaf of leavened bread grows large because the yeast causes it to become full of air,  not because the wheat suddenly gained new life and has grown.  A mustard tree grows tall from a single seed because it is filled with life from a healthy root after the death of the seed in fertile soil but not yeast. Yeast dies and does not revive.

As kids we used to take a slice of Wonder bread and roll it into a tiny ball. The slice seemed large, big enough for a sandwich, but it was nearly all air, vacant space, with little real substance. This is why it could be rolled into a very  tiny ball. False doctrines are just like this Wonder bread. 

It takes but a few grains of the yeast of the Pharisees to puff up and entire loaf to make it appear large and true. It may appear to have substance when it has very little. This is the leaven that destroyed the unleavened table of the ABC, and churches just like it. The yeast of the Pharisees has replaced the unleavened bread of love, grace, mercy, truth and wisdom with the puffed-up pursuit of greater knowledge. This puffed up knowledge has caused the death of those things that create the fruit of the Spirit, the greatest of these being love. 

 

FAIR VS. JUST

I return now to one of my beginning statements. I was present at the development of the ABC nearly from the absolute roots. I witnessed it from the perspective of being the son of the founder, Ramon A Haas, and write this from a position of having extensive inside knowledge of the inner workings of the ABC and not as an “outsider” or "elder". I know the “inside scoop” on many things the leaders would rather keep quiet. It is for this reason alone they tried to keep me silent through this false“eternal judgment” followed by “ex-communication”.  Is this truth? Is this fairness? Is this righteousness? Is this true justice? And who is the one to truly judge? Not them.

When other persons expressed to Gilbert Larson the treatment they received from the ABC was “unfair”, his common response was to tell them God is not “fair” but God is “just”.  It’s a nice compact statement that sounds good on the face, but the message behind these words is one must accept with gladness any abuse heaped on them, even if it’s unfair. It is put forward that in the eyes of god, per Gilbert Larson and others, the abuse is “just”, even if it is not fair.  But all the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth. True justice is always both equal and fair. Only self-righteousness is never fair.

Deuteronomy 32:4 reads, “He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he.”

Pr. 21:3-4 reads, “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the LORD weighs the hearts. To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.

What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.  For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.  From the letter to the Romans.

And if you are not convinced yet that God is not only “just” but also “fair”:

Dishonest scales are an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is His delight. When pride comes, then comes shame; but with the humble is wisdom. Pr. 11

Imagine if you went grocery shopping and there was a scale for you that added a few ounces to each weigh. The person in front of you, a dignitary, a leader, has a separate scale that instead subtracts a few ounces with each weigh. Fair? No. Yet there are those who try to attribute this type of unfairness to God and use a separate scale when weighing the "leaders" motivations and actions, without ever questioning the fairness of that scale. God abhors unfair weights as God is both just and fair. When we see an abuser act out unfairly against an individual, then excuse that unfairness by saying they “just had not grown in the Lord yet”, we are using a dishonest scale. This is abominable to God. 

You shall not have two differing weights in your bag, one heavy and one light. You shall not have two differing measures in your house, one large and one small.You must maintain accurate and honest weights and measures, so that you may live long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you. For everyone who behaves dishonestly in regard to these things is detestable to the LORD your God.       Book of Deuteronomy

Diverse weights and diverse measures, they are both alike, an abomination to the Lord. Pr. 20

When I put up this site about the hidden history of my father's church, and my own story of being incriminated through various subterfuges and lies, and included substantial proof, this is somehow considered to be a bitter root. But I warn just as John warned against Diotrephes, a man who was considered to be committing evil deeds by making up stories and ex-communicating those he chose not to like. He did not have the authority to do this.  Go back to the parable of the wheat and the tares. When one pulls up what they perceive to be a tare, they may actually be pulling up a stalk of wheat instead.

If you are in the ABC, take caution. You are in the company of proud Pharisees who have lost the ability to love, be tolerant and  they know not true justice, mercy and faithfulness. They could be coming for you next. I have seen this happen repeatedly for many decades, despite the oft repeated allegation "things are different now". They are not ever truly different, the truth of the abuses is just buried even deeper. This bitterness is hidden deep in the cake and you can't unbake that cake.

Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud. Pr. 16:18

Years ago there was a song given to someone in the ABC and some of the words were as follows, "Oh Lord, God of man, how we failed you once again. Look around, start once more, follow him while you can."   Perhaps that was actually prophetic at the time but no one was listening.

 

There is one basic error in churches like the ABC and it is this; there is a stronger emphasis on words and doctrine than on treating people decently and with love and tolerance.  Go back and read and understand the parable of the Good Samaritan. Better yet, read to understand all of the parables Jesus spoke. There you will find truth and wisdom. The ABC experience has become cerebral, puffed up with the yeast of the pursuit of knowledge, and devoid of any heartfelt or spiritual love. The true body of Christ is fraught with diversity but this diversity is demolished in "groupthink" churches like the ABC. This is wrong.

I end with a short quote from the letter to the Galatians:

Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.

TO MAIN SITE