Who now holds the authority
to administer God's government on earth today?

Herbert W. Armstrong used to claim this authority for the original Worldwide Church of God. (RIGHT CLICK, and choose 'Save Target As' for the 1983 free brochure pdf download file documenting his meetings with world leaders at that time.) Since his death in 1986, many of the church splits from this original group continued to claim to have inherited this authority, as holders of the Philadelphia lampstand or candlestick (Rev. 1:20). Do they really have this authority? Was the baton passed from one group to another when the churches split? If so, where is it today? WHO HAS IT NOW?

What is God's government?

The Bible says in 1 John 4:8 that God is love. Romans 13:10 says love is the fulfilling of the law.

Therefore, the authority of God includes the love of God, and is the government of God which holds to Gods laws. It is God's government - not man's. Whether man can administer it or not will be discussed below. But first, the point must be made that whatever any man says must come secondary to whatever God says. This is the first commandment. -- Exodus 20:3.

Structure and shape

God gave us an example of his government structure in Exodus 18:21, 25, and Deut. 1:15. This is a pyramid structure. Although a number of churches dispute that this sets a pattern for our time now, it is fairly clear. All of nature has a pyramid structure. Planets revolve around suns, which revolve around the centre of the galaxy. Electrons orbit the nucleus of an atom. Eph. 5:23 puts the husband as the head of the wife, which spreads into a pyramid structure as the family grows. The new Jerusalem will most likely even be shaped like a pyramid. See Rev. 21:16.

In the world of commerce, pyramid selling is illegal. Do you know what makes the difference between an illegal pyramid and a fully legal network marketing organisation? In principle, it's what happens to the end user. If the end user makes a loss, and is hurt financially without receiving an equivalent product benefit, it is (or should be) an illegal pyramid. Some may even object to me using this as an example, but ideally, in a legitimate Multi Level Marketing, or network marketing organisation, the end user is supposed to benefit. The product benefits for the end user should outweigh the price paid (I'm talking about the way it should work).

The ideal in the above example is how God's government works in principle. That is, the people at the bottom levels of God's pyramid, the end users, have all those above them serving them, and from this they benefit greatly. This is the meaning of Christ washing the feet of the disciples. -- John 13:4-17.

Also like network marketing, in God's governmental pyramid, the 'product' can often be more clearly demonstrated and explained with one-on-one personal tuition, or personal counselling by ministers.

Another way a pyramid structure works with God's government, is that it remains stable, while it may continue to multiply and expand forever! Isaiah 9:7 says God's government will have no end.

Who can administer it?

If the government of God comes from God, can humans administer it?

Yes. In the New Testament church, great power and authority was given to the disciples. -- Luke 10:17.

The story of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5:1-5 shows that this authority extended over the church, as well as the demons.

BUT WHO HAS IT TODAY?

A leader of one of the church splits dismisses the idea of a succession of leaders in the church without any gap, as a Catholic idea, and therefore he says it's not correct. But just because the Catholics may believe it, does NOT make it incorrect. The Catholics are against abortion. So is God's true church. To say that because the Catholics believe something, it makes it incorrect, is not a valid argument.

This leader cannot admit to the "no gap" understanding because it puts into question his own claim to the physical leadership of the church.

Before I explain how a physical leadership has continued without a gap, I need to explain where the body of Christ has been during the last 20 years.

A large part of the confusion on this subject is because the true church is a spiritual body, NOT a corporate body. In the Laodicean age the spiritual body has remained loyal to Christ to varying degrees, so in this way Christ's spiritual body --the church-- has NOT become divided in it's loyalty to Christ, to the degree that each member of that body has been able to understand where the truth is. Loyalty to the physical leader of a corporate body on the other hand, is an entirely different matter.

Generally speaking, God will bless those who obey his laws, whether or not the people are technically within one corporate body or another... watch Priscilla Shirer on the above video explaining why you can not put God in a box. The Bible makes it clear, in Galatians 5:22, 23, that there is no law against love, speaking about God's love. The opposite also applies - God does NOT back up those who misuse authority. Anyone who thinks they have God's governmental authority, and uses it as an excuse to oppress others (thereby breaking God's law of love), does not have it.

Although the apostle Paul was a minister, he said that without charity, or love, he was nothing. To put it bluntly, this is the same as saying that if any man, or minister, in or out of God's church, does not use charity, especially when he corrects, he is actually nothing. "If I have not charity I am nothing". If instructions or correction comes from nothing, that reduces the instruction and correction to the level of nothing also! Therefore, some who think they hold authority in the Church may be in for an unpleasant surprise when they are called upon by Christ to answer for their actions.

At the beginning of 1986, when Mr. Herbert Armstrong died, Christ gave the main body of the true church four years to produce fruit, (see my page on church history here) and when it did not, Christ cut the main trunk of the church "tree' down. See Luke 13:6-9. Exactly four years later at the end of 1989 the Laodicean candlestick was passed to the Philadelphia Church of God, which was the first enlightened church to protest the darkness, and break away from the false doctrines that the Worldwide Church of God were bringing in. (The PCG has produced their own videos about the church breakaway. They run several websites, including the Key of David TV program here.)

Mr. Flurry became the leader of the seventh church -- the leader of Laodicea -- but I believe the PCG has now become a cult. God never gave authority to any PCG minister to spiritually mistreat any brethren. Mr. Flurry's Philadelphia Church of God government held on to the correct pyramid structure of government, but not the correct spirit of love, that should have flowed throughout, down to the least member.

I don't claim to be infallible, so my present understanding of this next section may need future revision.

As I understand it, brethren who were still Philadelphian did not suddenly vanish. They were scattered among the churches that continued to break away from the WCG. Many became part of the Philadelphia Church of God also, and the Laodicean and Philadelphian candlesticks burned together in the PCG, with the Philadelphia candlestick possible being carried by Mr. John Amos who broke away from the WCG alongside Mr. Flurry, and died a few years later.

After this, God again began to separate those with a true Philadelphian attitude of brotherly love, and the candlestick for Philadelphia may also have passed from the PCG.

At no time was there ever any gap where the physical head of God's Laodicean church could not be identified or named, but the leader of Philadelphia since the beginning of the PCG has been somewhat hidden.

The Philadelphia candlestick MAY have been passed through the PCG, and through Mr Robert Ardis, leader of the Church of God's Faithful. From there, it MAY have passed to me when Mr. Robert Ardis rejected truth that I presented to him about the correct holy day dates. The two witnesses will soon carry the light of truth, but as yet, (despite my flood miracle), it remains to be seen who they are.

I believe the Philadelphian candlestick, and light of truth, currently resides with those who (a) hold onto brotherly love and (b) do not reject additional truth when it is revealed to them -- for proof of this, see Hosea 4:6.

God says the last shall be first. So the last holder of the candlestick may be one who is least in importance, --one not even recognised as holding any office in the church in this end time. If this is so,