14-Apex Airpark

 

Some who left the Assembly of the Body of Christ (ABC), and then found peace, remarked that looking back they must have been wearing rose-colored glasses.  I have pondered this statement for quite some time and have often felt the same. One day I realized these glasses were not rose-colored...they were actually polarized. These "polarized" glasses masked the glaring errors that were right before me, even though they were plain to one not viewing them in a polarized manner.  There have been many glaring problems, and upheavals, over the years. We in the ABC just put on our polarized lenses and pretended they did not exist.

As I look back at my life in the ABC, and how I and my family were treated, I realize how much fallacy I  just blocked out. There have been several periods in my life when I could escape all, or most, of the ABC's influence and it was during these periods I found times of peace. Why I left that peace and returned to the ABC is not really a mystery as I returned the second time out of a sense of imposed guilt. More on that later.

Much of the "under the surface" tumult; glare if you will; is invisible to the newcomer. They are deliberately shielded from it as they are "love bombed". This way, by standard practice in the ABC, the "new babe is not harmed". It is impossible to keep these glaring problems hidden forever though, and when it finally does come to light the new person is advised, "for the sake of unity" to put on polarized lenses, ignore the glare of problems and upheavals all around you, and continue on in the same direction.

But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by them that make peace. James 3:17-18 

The goal in life should be peace. There is not a great deal of  peace in the ABC.

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I lived just a short time in Santa Cruz after my dad and Yvonne suddenly left. The restaurant where I worked shut down and I found myself in an even worse financial situation than when I first arrived. My single option was to call my dad. I was surviving only because my neighbors were very generous and were providing  me with food and companionship. I had been ordered by my dad to have nothing to do with these neighbors since they would “pull me away from the body” but they were kind, generous and very good friends. It was no longer just  a matter of food. I was now no longer able to  pay my space rent and was soon to be evicted to the street. I knew I could not rely on others generosity forever and I had two choices left. Live on the street or return "home".

I called my dad and told him about my situation. He told me to come back to the Seattle area to the Apex Airpark in Silverdale Washington where they were staying but offered no assistance to get there.  I was told if I could find a way to Silverdale someone would buy my trailer from me and he would help me out until I found work.  I borrowed $40.00 (about $260.00 in 2022 dollars) from my charitable neighbor with the promise to repay them when I sold my trailer. I headed north up I-5 to the Apex Airpark arriving two days later after a brief stop in Grants Pass. 

The Apex Airpark is a small private airport community then owned by a sweet woman named Roberta Walker.  Most called her either Mom or Grandma, depending on their age, since she was so generous. Roberta's husband had built Apex Airpark from a raw piece of ground decades earlier and had unfortunately died before his visions of a planned community were completed. Roberta now ran this private airport all on her own with a little help from a few of the residents.  They have now paved the runway but back then it was just dirt and gravel with crude lighting.  

Roberta was  introduced to "the group" through her daughter Janet who was one of the original group members in Mountlake Terrace. Roberta offered my dad the use of a large space next to her home to park the bus and, since the bus was not handling the strain of the additional weight of the conversion, my dad used this as an opportunity to rebuild the engine. He was in the middle of that project when I arrived. 

 

On the very evening  I arrived my dad told me to clean out my trailer, had me sign over the title to him, then told me to tow the trailer over to Ralph and Karen’s house on the back side of the air park.  It was my understanding  they were buying the trailer from me; I had made all of the payments on it except for the first sixty-dollar down payment, but I never saw a dime from the “sale”. By the next morning the trailer had been gutted and converted to a goat shed. It was sad to see since, even though it was tiny, this had been my home. I was angry, felt cheated and lied to, but I still remained gullible, obedient. I felt if I did not do what they told me, God would punish me.

After I dropped the trailer at Ralph and Karen's house I asked my dad where I was supposed to live. He showed me to an old bus that had been left at the airpark by Jim; the man who had help construct my dad's bus. The bus had no bed, no stove, no table, and was basically just a ramshackle space full of garbage and mouse droppings. They threw an old mattress on the floor for me and this was to be my new  home. My dad promised he would help me fix it up later and told me he envisioned me traveling on the road with him. It was a lie. I slept in the bus on the old mattress the first night. Roberta heard of the arrangement and offered to let me live in her back bedroom instead. This would supposedly give me an opportunity to make the bus more livable. I went along but the bus project never got off the ground when my dad reneged on his promise to help me fix it up. Instead recommended I drive it to Ernie’s house so he could work on the engine. I found out later my dad had actually given the bus to Ernie since I was “no longer using it”. On the trip to Ernie’s the bus caught fire and ended up scrapped. Oh well.

Within two weeks of arriving at the airpark I found myself married to a girl I had met only once before, for just a few hours, when she attended a church picnic in Santa Cruz.  There is a much larger story to all of this, but for the sake of this narrative "matchmaking" or "arranged marriages" were common in the early days of "the group" and still is, but to a smaller degree. I was nineteen then, she just seventeen. We had each been counseled separately God wanted us to marry.  We were both young, impressionable, gullible and believed this was something we had to do to "stay in God's will".  My dad officiated the marriage at the airpark, and Roberta's daughter, Janet, made the cake. About a dozen people attended, most of them I had never met.

Arranged marriages in the ABC are no longer arranged in exactly the same fashion but marrying someone from outside the group is frowned upon. I heard recently of a very young child that was already being matched with another for a future pairing so arranging is still happening.  The ABC do not accept marrying someone from outside  as valid. Marrying this person would mean you  had "unequally yoked yourself with an unbeliever". The only solution, to make the marriage valid, is for the person to volunteer to be baptized by the ABC.

It is 1974 now and I find myself married, living in the back bedroom of Roberta's house with my new wife and unemployed. Seattle is in a major recession and finding a job is difficult. I barely graduated high School, have no college education and am forced to take whatever odd job I can find through temporary employment agencies.  Emotionally, and in every other way, I was not ready for this marriage and neither was my new wife.  The marriage lasted only a short time; less than a month; before things fell apart. She left and ended up living at the home of a couple that had broken off from "the group" to start their own ultra-authoritarian, mostly communal, "Shepherding / Discipleship"  group.  More on that later.

The Shepherding Movement / Discipleship teachings had been  introduced to "the group" when Bob Mumford, and others from his movement, came to Seattle and spoke.  Mumford was directly connected with Derek Prince and Ern Baxter from "The Sharon Orphanage" days (and thus Broadway Tabernacle as well) and it was this connection to Derek Prince that attracted my dad to attend his Seattle meeting.  My dad came back from this meeting excited  about what he had learned about "church discipline".  It is this meeting, and this moment in time, that would paint a great deal of havoc into many peoples lives. It ushered in decades of even more repressive discipline.  

 
The "shepherding movement" affected both mainstream and home-based churches but, regardless of the structure of the church or group, the scripture still states, in Paul's words to Peter:

"…not as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock…" (I Peter 5:3, NKJV)

Below is a short excerpt from an article in the Cephas Library. It is a rather long article, and I encourage those following along on my historical narrative to read the entire article. It explains well the "discipline" abuses still happening in the ABC.  These abuses directly result from this teaching by Mumford in Seattle my dad and a few other men attended.  This excerpt has to do with Bob Mumford's alleged repentance in 1990. There is a sign he did not truly repent however, as many individuals in his movement, have had to seek treatment for severe PTSD, anxiety, depression, etc.   Here is that excerpt:

... in a subsequent Charisma & Christian Life article published in February, 1990, reportedly after having sought the advice and counsel of Jack Hayford and others, according to the article, Mumford spoke more as one who was genuinely chastened, repentant, and willing to deal with the issue in a more direct fashion, accepting full responsibility for his error. According to the article, Mumford read a statement in November of 1989 "to a gathering of pastors at the Christian Believers United meeting in Ridgecrest, North Carolina,"11 in which he said,

"I repent. I was wrong. I ask for forgiveness," Mumford said about his involvement in the discipleship movement.
The article went on to say:
...Mumford decided that he needed to publicly 'repent' of his responsibility in setting up a system where so many people were hurt by misuses of authority. "Some families were split up and lives turned upside down," says Mumford. "Some of these families are still not back together."   

Ripping  families apart has been a recurring theme in the ABC and it is  justified by stating "the body is your family now” and the quoting of this scripture:

And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matthew 10:36-37 

 This is a wrong interpretation. 

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One of the men who  listened to Bob Mumford speak that night, split from "the group" then began his own "discipleship" gathering at his home in Everett Washington. This gathering was not officially part of  'the group" but he still kept in touch and would still attend ABC meetings. This man demanded complete submission, in every way, the setting was mostly communal and all of his followers lived together in his large home. This is the group my new wife would align herself with when she left.

As a single man again I was able to find only a straight commission "job" selling Electrolux vacuum cleaners door to door. That did not go well. I was still broke, and my  future as a "married man" was pretty uncertain. At the time I had no idea where my new wife had gone. Frankly I did not really care. I was not financially or emotionally ready for marriage. I wanted out. After a few weeks, the man who was operating this spun off “discipling” group called me, then visited me, and told me my wife was now living at his house and had "submitted to his authority". This meant they had shared a bed together. He told me I should come and join her and "submit to his authority" as well. I did not. Word of our separation and her joining this other man's group began to get out to people  and was causing scandal so my dad knew he had to take some sort of action.

He called a man named Tom in "the group" who managed a store in Bellevue where I was now living.  Tom searched me out, had me come by his store and told me to use his phone to call my dad. On this call my dad asked if I would come to the airpark and teach on the Armor of God. I agreed. Being asked to teach however was just a ruse to get me to the airpark. My new wife, who was now living in Everett, was also called and asked to come to the airpark "just to talk".  I arrived at the meeting that night and was surprised to see my new wife sitting there. She too was surprised to see me walk through the door. We were both whisked to the back room and "counseled" God had put us together and wanted us to stay together. We were told God wanted us to move to Klamath Falls Oregon where we were told, we could get our marriage stabilized. A couple named Don and Darlene would help us patch up the marriage. Need I say again I was young, gullible and my back was against the wall?

Both my new wife and I, wanting to stay in "God's will", and under "spiritual duress" to stay together, agreed to go. We were very confused kids, broke, dependent on others for our support, thrown together into a mixing bowl and  given a good stir. We had both been trained that what we must do what we were told by “the elders”. Anything else was rebellion and rebels will suffer eternal punishment. We left Silverdale the next day and traveled to Klamath Falls to live with Don and Darlene.  

I had known Don and Darlene since I was about sixteen.  Don and I fished together often in the Puget Sound. We had many good times together.  I babysat their kids often when they went out. They were good friends, fantastic people; gentle, kind and admirable. Our time in Klamath Falls would be just as pleasant and, through their love and encouragement, my new wife and I calmed our marriage and lived mostly peaceably. My new wife and I worked our way off welfare, and I took whatever odd jobs I could find for additional money.  The winter of that year I found a job full time as a cook at Sambo's restaurant and got off welfare, except for food stamps and medical. This would be my second time living in Klamath Falls and it was mostly a time of peace. That would end when I would receive a phone call from my dad which, for a second time, would take me to California.  But this time it would be San Diego, not Santa Cruz, and this time I was not a boy....I was a married boy.

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In the next post, my wife and I travel to San Diego, meet David North (the prophet) for the first time, and settle in to "real" life.

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13-Our Mother

 

One of the doctrines taught by the “Assembly of the Body of Christ”,

to maintain control of people, is "The  Body of Christ" is our "mother" and therefore we must obey it.  This they prove by quoting from the book of  Matthew in the New Testament:

While he was yet speaking to the multitudes, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, seeking to speak to him. One said to him, "Behold, your mother and your brothers stand outside, seeking to speak to you." But he answered him who spoke to him, "Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?" He stretched out his hand towards his disciples, and said, "Behold, my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother." Matthew 12:46-50

If we read this for what it says, Christ was stating his true family are those who do His will and follow His path. He was not showing who was His spiritual mother and we can easily prove this.

With this doctrine the ABC tries to prove one must heed the opinions of the leaders, a delegate of the leaders, or an assembly of local members. Each dictate what the person must do based on their own opinions and perceptions of what the mind of God is.  The individual, or family,  is expected to obey these "commands of God" and may even suffer "discipline" or ex-communication if they do not follow the advice. I have seen this happen many times.

The ABC has  established what they term  "body counsels" and these "body counsels"  are fraught with personal opinion. In the early days of the ABC this even included things like "which kitchen table should I buy". In these “body counsels”, groups of  individuals come together to pray, read passages from the Bible, then offer up their opinion on what they feel "the mind of God" is. They dictate these opinions not with suggestion, but with force. It is portended God himself has spoken when the advice is given. There is no allowance for human error and the advice  must be obeyed.  

In the past I have made some very poor life decisions when I assumed, wrongly, "body counsel" was "the voice of God", irrefutable, and not merely the opinions of a few mere men that should be looked at closely. I followed the advice blindly,without judging its validity or verifying if it was even  prudent.  I suffered the consequences. 

Not long before I was ambushed then ex-communicated for the final time an individual came to me quite confused.  This person was confronted with a huge life decision and did not know what to do. Having traveled to another meeting in another state, she asked for  "body counsel". There was much talk, prayer, some reading of passages from the Bible then God "told" this individual through body counsel to make a particular decision. 

When this person returned to their hometown meeting, they mentioned the need to make this major decision to the group they normally fellowshipped with. Once again there was much speaking, prayer, reading of Bible passages and this time there was also a “prophesy”. As God "spoke” this time, through this body counsel, God "told" this individual to do exactly the opposite as what had been related in that meeting out of state. This confused individual asked me; "How do I know which "God" to believe?

My answer was, if God was speaking,  he would speak to them directly, not through another person. While it is fine, and perhaps wise, to obtain opinions from others, it must still be regarded as just that...opinion. If it were God speaking it would not be in a manner  made  frail by the presence of personal opinion. Even if the opinion “manifests through prophecy" all opinions rendered, especially through  prophecy, must be weighed for validity. Many false prophets exist in this world and there is only one who is wise...God.  

Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge. 1 Corinthians 14:29 

The largest flaw in this "mother" teaching is that it is impossible for Christ to be his own mother and give birth to Himself. If Christ's own body is his mother, does that not then mean Christ and the mother are the same? This is confusion. If we are to believe Paul to the Corinthian's "God is not the author of confusion...1 Corinthians 14:3.

This doctrine is disproved in the bible, as I will show below. Galatians chapter 4, verse 26 offers the most clear explanation of who our spiritual mother is:

Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.   For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.  (26) But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.Galatians 4:21-31 

By this account, if we have been born of God, "Jerusalem above" is our mother and we are a child of the "freewoman".  To determine who exactly "Jerusalem above"  is, we need only look at a few other places in the Bible. 

We have seen in Galatians, those born after the flesh are a child of the bondwoman, but one can be a child of the freewoman if we are born of the Spirit.   If we look at John 3, verse 6-8 we see that:

That which is born of the flesh is flesh. [but] That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Don't marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born anew.' The wind  blows where it wants to, and you hear its sound, but don't know where it comes from and where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit."

This shows a juxtaposition between those born of the flesh and those born of the Spirit.  The New Testament scripture show Christ was born both in the flesh by Mary but he was also born of the Spirit, after his death, at his resurrection.  Thus if we follow him in the likeness of His death and resurrection we too can be born of the Spirit. 

And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead: Romans 1:4 

If we are to believe the Old and New Testament, there are many examples of God being our father.  There is little doubt this truth can be proven using the Bible.  When Christ made his way to earth, He told us He came in the likeness of his Father (God).

Believe you not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwells in me, he does the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake. John 14:10-11 

So the Bible states that Christ came to earth and dwelt among us in the image of His Father (God).  When Christ left the earth it meant we, mankind, would once again be without a representation of a spiritual parent on earth and would be as orphans. Look at John 14: 15-21:

If you love me, keep my commandments. I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Counselor,  that he may be with you forever,-- the Spirit of truth, whom the world can't receive; for it doesn't see him, neither knows him. You know him, for he lives with you, and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world will see me no more; but you will see me. Because I live, you will live also. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. One who has my commandments, and keeps them, that person is one who loves me. One who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will reveal myself to him."  John 14:15-21 

Some translations use the word "comfortless" but this is actually the Greek word "orphanos" or "orphans". Jesus assured his followers,  when He left the earth, and they no longer had an image of the Father (God) dwelling among them, he would send back another image, another Counselor--the Holy Spirit--to be with them.  Jesus, the image of God the father is replaced by the Spirit, the image of the mother. This is the only way it would not leave us orphans.

To encapsulate this story, prior to Jesus' birth as a man on earth, mankind was orphaned on the earth, without the image of a father or mother for comfort. When Christ came in the image of His Father (God), we were no longer orphans because of his presence on earth in the image of the Father. However, he knew he could not remain on earth forever in this image of the Father (God) so He assured his followers, once He left, He would send back the image of the other parent; the Holy Spirit, and mankind would no longer be orphaned (without father or mother). Jesus, in the father's image, left us then sent back  the image of the mother; Holy Spirit; to comfort us and counsel.

Note what he spoke just after these statements.

I have said these things to you, while still living with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and will remind you of all that I said to you. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you; not as the world gives, give I to you. Don't let your heart be troubled, neither let it be fearful. John 14:25-27 

The true Counselor, our true mother, is the Holy Spirit, not "The Body of Christ" as the ABC would have you believe.  Christ was born of the Spirit at his resurrection and He was, I assure you,  not born of Himself.

And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loves us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood...Revelation 1:5

God has fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he has raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, You are my Son, this day have I begotten you.Acts 13:33 
I will declare the decree: the LORD has said unto me, You are my Son; this day have I begotten you. Psalms 2:7 

The bible states when Christ died, and was resurrected, he was born of the Spirit, born again of God, became the begotten of God, was born out of Zion (Jerusalem above) and it is He who established her womb as He became the firstborn of God, allowing us the same privilege of being born of the Spirit. 

And of Zion it shall be said, This and that man was born in her: and the highest himself shall establish her. Psalms 87:5 

If God is our father, we must also be born of the Spirit; our mother. When this happens, we have forever within us the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father  sends in Christ's name, and he will teach you all things. John 14:15 [paraphrased].  If we are born of God and born of the Spirit we have identified who our true parents are. The body of Christ cannot be its own mother. If counsel is to be given it must come directly from the Holy Spirit within us. The rest is simply opinion and must be weighed.

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