Post by Admin on Feb 19, 2024 16:00:02 GMT -5
Excerpts from the letter by Jack & Nan Paddon
We love Jesus the lamb in John 1. We hear Jesus the lion in John 2. In John 4, His answer to the woman by the well: “woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the father”. “God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth”. Meetings do not define our salvation. We’ve always loved our Sunday morning meeting and everyone who has met with us. Over the last several months the doctrine of exclusivity has created a division that has escalated and now some in our meeting have chosen to meet elsewhere. Nan and I have been true to everything we’ve been trusted with. We received the workers mail & phone calls long before email & text. Workers came & went freely because they were family to us. We loved our privilege.
Exclusivity is the ministry’s Achilles heel. The early workers first came to California in 1903 without companions and without the doctrine of exclusivity. Joseph Kerr and William Irvine adopted the Living Witness Doctrine in 1907. In the first years, there were no friends, no open homes, no Sunday or Wednesday meetings, and no conventions.
These 11 months have stripped away any conceits of selfishness and exclusivity and we must cling to Jesus only.
The history of exclusivity
In 1907, Joseph Kerr introduced William Irvine to the then popular Living Witness Doctrine (aka LWD) theory that Henry Drummond presented in his book Natural Law in the Spiritual World, published in 1884. Irvine adopted the LWD and it became an essential core belief in the church. When applied to the workers’ gospel, in order to attain salvation, it was essential that one profess through a worker who had professed through a worker. The obstacle of the founder, William Irvine, having professed through Presbyterian Rev. John McNeill (not a worker) was solved by Irvine declaring himself to be the Alpha worker. This notion of exclusivity is not scriptural and has caused many excommunications over the last 120+ years.
We love Jesus the lamb in John 1. We hear Jesus the lion in John 2. In John 4, His answer to the woman by the well: “woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the father”. “God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth”. Meetings do not define our salvation. We’ve always loved our Sunday morning meeting and everyone who has met with us. Over the last several months the doctrine of exclusivity has created a division that has escalated and now some in our meeting have chosen to meet elsewhere. Nan and I have been true to everything we’ve been trusted with. We received the workers mail & phone calls long before email & text. Workers came & went freely because they were family to us. We loved our privilege.
Exclusivity is the ministry’s Achilles heel. The early workers first came to California in 1903 without companions and without the doctrine of exclusivity. Joseph Kerr and William Irvine adopted the Living Witness Doctrine in 1907. In the first years, there were no friends, no open homes, no Sunday or Wednesday meetings, and no conventions.
These 11 months have stripped away any conceits of selfishness and exclusivity and we must cling to Jesus only.
The history of exclusivity
In 1907, Joseph Kerr introduced William Irvine to the then popular Living Witness Doctrine (aka LWD) theory that Henry Drummond presented in his book Natural Law in the Spiritual World, published in 1884. Irvine adopted the LWD and it became an essential core belief in the church. When applied to the workers’ gospel, in order to attain salvation, it was essential that one profess through a worker who had professed through a worker. The obstacle of the founder, William Irvine, having professed through Presbyterian Rev. John McNeill (not a worker) was solved by Irvine declaring himself to be the Alpha worker. This notion of exclusivity is not scriptural and has caused many excommunications over the last 120+ years.