About
The Author

I grew
up in eastern Massachusetts in a suburb town near Boston called Belmont. As a
nine-year-old I was attending the Episcopal Church and basically taking the
Bible at face value even though I wasn’t that familiar with what it had to say.
(But I was in the habit of believing what I read, whether a narrative or
command, which set my spiritual course early on and made for an interesting
spiritual journey which is still in progress. I remember I once read (in those
early days) a Bible command in the Old Testament not to eat the blood, so not
realizing the meat juice from a cooked steak or roast wasn’t blood at all, I
ceased consuming those juices with a meal. This was the nature of my faith in
the
Word
of God, which hasn’t diminished.)Once, when the U.S. Army moved its
anti-aircraft battery out of a field on Belmont Hill right near where I lived,
a couple of us kids scoured the grounds for what we could find.I found an olive-green can about the size and shape of a Hunts tomato paste can.
It turned out to be a detonator-canister of fulminate of mercury, used to set
off the large sacks of powder that propelled the anti-aircraft shells miles
into the sky. I threw it at a large rock about 20 feet away. (I was a good
pitcher.) It flew right toward the rock, and then at the last moment it veered
away from the rock at an angle, which left us two boys scratching our heads. We
then took the canister to our parents, who immediately called the police. A
little while later a bomb-squad van pulled up and two guys got out with a
bucket of water and tiptoed over to where we had placed the canister. They
picked it up and gently placed it in the bucket, took bucket with detonator and
tiptoed back to the van and slowly drove away. That was the first of a couple
very real miracles I have witnessed that saved my life. My angel was working
overtime that day.
In the
fall of 1968 when I was 22 years old, I went to sea on an old WWII submarine,
the U.S.S. Blenny (SS 324), headed for Lisbon,Portugal,
then Rota, Spain, and then theMediterranean Sea for a
wonderful three month patrol
I had
grown up sailing small sailboats, so I loved it out at sea on a submarine,
which spent most of its time on the surface crashing through immense waves
(serving on that boat was like being on a peace-time version of that German
movie, "The Boat"). After I had gotten off active duty, sometime in
the spring of 1970 I became a baptized member of the Worldwide Church of God.
Although this small denomination was at that time an old covenant biased Sabbatarian
Christian church, we were imbued with the Holy Spirit as a group and
individually, even though many outside our fellowship didn’t think so and
labeled us a cult. We were cult-like, but decidedly not a cult. In the most
simplistic way possible the apostle Paul defined a Christian as someone who has
the indwelling Holy Spirit and is actively being led by this Holy Spirit
(Romans 8:9,14).
So, as
some denominations like to call it, I was born-again, or received the Holy
Spirit at my baptism, or even before, looking back in time. I had a saving
knowledge of God’s Word then, and even more so now. Worldwide Church of
God members knew their Bible from one end to the other, and we were a praying
church as well (Mr. Armstrong was always saying a church walks forward on its
knees). Herbert Armstrong laid a very good, and very thorough foundation
for Sabbath-keeping Churches of God. But that is as far as he
went. Foundations need buildings built upon them. Be sure to check
out the Worldwide Church of God section and article to see what I mean by that.
From Sabbath to Sunday to
Sabbath again
In
1986 Mr. Armstrong died, and Mr. Tkach Sr. took over
the church, having been appointed by Mr. Armstrong a year or two before his
death to succeed him. Then in the year 1995 this Sabbath-keeping Church of
God went through a very painful and interesting experience. As purported
to be “a better understanding of the Scriptures” this Sabbath-keeping
Church of God with historic roots going back to the 300s AD said
that “days of worship were an optional choice for believers.” (To see
the doctrinal/historic and somewhat literal connection between the Worldwide
Church of God, the early Church, and the Sabbath-keeping Churches of God in the
1600s, see http://www.unityinchrist.com/history2/earlychurch1.htm and http://www.unityinchrist.com/history/historycog1.htm.) Mr. Tkach Sr. did not live past 1995 and the monumental doctrinal changes he brought the
Worldwide Church of God into. As he was dying of cancer he appointed his
son, Joe Tkach Jr. as the next hierarchal leader over
the Worldwide Church of God. Under Joe Tkach Jr.’s leadership Worldwide essentially ceased to be a Sabbath/Holy Day
observing denomination by the year 2001. The whole painful experience that
89,000 Worldwide Church of God members went through is explained in the lead
article in the Worldwide Church of God section of this website (see http://www.unityinchrist.com/wwcofg/wwcofgod.html). Be sure to read that
article to better understand the spiritual journey I made. Initially, I
came through the doctrinal changes Joe Tkach Sr.
made, so I now believed that Sunday observing Christians could also possess and
be indwelt by the Holy Spirit. (I was soon to learn by direct experience
and observation just how true that is, but I’m getting ahead of myself.) Under
Joe Tkach Jr., at least from a member-level perspective, and maybe pastor-level perspective too,
Worldwide had become so unstable in its beliefs that I sought spiritual
nourishment elsewhere. I had been a member of this fellowship for about 30
years now, but very sadly their headquarters and many of their pastors had lost
the ability to give a nourishing sermon, probably due to the fact that
doctrinal beliefs within the Worldwide Church of God were changing at times,
week by week. I also learned at a mini-conference for New England pastors
(I helped run the sound system for that event) that Headquarters and thus the
denomination was quietly, but very forcefully from the top down, drifting into Amillennialism and “replacement theology,” which doctrinal
eschatological interpretations I viewed and still view as being extremely
inaccurate and having strong anti-Semitic bias that has contributed to
anti-Semitism in Europe for 1700 years of ‘Church history.’ Quite
naturally, as a hungry sheep, looking for a group that taught accurately from
the Word of God, when a tiny Bible study that met on Sundays started up in the
town I lived in, I started to attend. They taught a pre-millennial
prophetic interpretation on prophecy which I was used to, and they also taught
very effectively from an expositional format, teaching verse by verse, chapter
by chapter, book by book, through the whole Word of God. I attended their
small Sunday Bible study for two and a half years, initially, and witnessed
their astounding growth from 12 members to about 125 members. Then within
the next four years they mushroomed to around 400 + members. I watched
people coming in from the local area, casting off addictions and sins, and then
over the years, I watched them grow in God’s agape-love for others, becoming
selfless Christians caring for the community in love and service for
others. This church was a Calvary Chapel, affiliated with Pastor Chuck
Smith’s Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, California. (See http://www.unityinchrist.com/history/smith.htm to see how this recent
Christian revival started in the early 1970s, started by God through Pastor
Chuck Smith. Pastor Chuck just died in 2014.) What I came to realize
by direct contact, observation and experience, was that the Holy Spirit could
exist and actually indwell some Sunday-observing Christians and groups. All
Sabbath-keeping Church of God believers, from their doctrinal stance and
understanding don’t believe Sunday-keepers can have the indwelling Holy
Spirit. That is something the Sabbath-keeping Churches of God down through
history didn’t always believe was possible. It’s a sincerely held
doctrinal view, and for the most part no animosity is held toward Sunday-keepers,
they just believe they’re sincerely deceived, they don’t believe they’re “real
Christians.” But by direct observation within a loving Calvary Chapel
congregation in my hometown, I could see people I knew keeping 9 out of the 10
Commandments, not just in the letter, but in the spirit, as commanded by Jesus
in Matthew 5:17-48 (something not really possible without God’s Holy
Spirit). I spent 7.5 years in this local Calvary Chapel.
From Calvary Chapel to the
Messianic Jews
But
having been spiritually “brought up” in a Sabbath-keeping Church of God, I
didn’t feel totally comfortable with some of Calvary Chapel’s secondary
doctrines, and especially not keeping the Sabbath and Holy Days of Leviticus 23
(which interestingly enough, Calvary Chapels understand the prophetic/symbolic
meaning of, just as we had been taught in Worldwide---they even understand that
Jesus will return the Church in the Millennial Kingdom of God on earth back to
Sabbath and Holy Day observance. That was a real pleasant surprise to me.) I
had been quietly keeping the Sabbath and Holy Days on my own, not working on
those days throughout my stay in Calvary Chapel. But I sought a church
that would actively keep those days. An old exWCG friend who attended the same Calvary Chapel with me told me about a wonderful
tiny Messianic Jewish congregation that met about 8 miles west of my
town. I was soon to learn that God had been very busy restoring the Jewish
branch of the Body of Christ, via the Messianic Jewish movement, which had
really started to pick up steam around 1970, the same time-period when the
Calvary Chapels got started under Pastor Chuck Smith. Coincidence? The
rabbis have a saying “With the things of God there is no such thing as
coincidence.” So I started attending there for a couple years. They
were a very wonderful, friendly and warm congregation. I learned enough
from them and independent research to help me write the Messianic Jewish
section of this website (see http://www.unityinchrist.com/messianicmovement/messianicmovement.htm). Their doctrinal
understanding of the prophetic meaning of God’s Holy Days was quite similar to
what Worldwide’s had been, but wasn’t a perfect
match. I still wasn’t totally comfortable there.
Back To The Sabbath-keeping Churches of God
If you
read that article about the Worldwide Church of God, you will see that after
1995 about 375 different, often squabbling, bickering Sabbath-keeping Churches
of God denominations had formed, having split off of the old Worldwide Church
of God. A close exWCG friend of mine I’d known
for about 40 years ran a Sabbath-keeping Church of God house-church which was
loosely affiliated with Fred Coulter’s Christian Biblical Church of God. I
started attending to lend support to her family for reasons other than just
wanting a place to attend on the Sabbath. I attended there for two
years. I was sort of comfortable attending their tiny house-church, except
that many in the group (as well as in Fred’s denomination) held to the old
Worldwide Church of God belief that “Sunday-keeping ‘so-called’
Christians couldn’t possibly have the Holy Spirit indwelling them.” At the
same time I was challenged to go into some pretty heavy research as to whether
the Sabbath command had actually been abrogated in the Bible (what Constantine
did in 325AD doesn’t count, only the Word of God counts to me). The
article is in the WCG section of this site, more on that later. Because of
my belief about Sunday-keepers having the ability (for whatever reason, I’m not
totally sure) to have the indwelling Holy Spirit, I wasn’t too comfortable
within this house-church and they weren’t that comfortable with me. After
a couple years, though, their tiny house-church divided into two smaller
house-churches, over some doctrinal differences. I went with the more
independently-minded group, which was more accepting of the few members
composing it, who all held somewhat differing beliefs (so we had to be
accepting of minor doctrinal differences within the group). I discovered
within this tiny group two others, a husband and wife, who essentially believed
just as I do about Sunday-keepers having the ability to have the Holy Spirit,
for whatever reason. After a couple more years spent there, I followed
this family into a local congregation of the United Church of
God. Questions about unity in the Body of Christ, and especially within
the terribly fractured Sabbath-keeping Church of God side of the Body of Christ
have greatly concerned me of late, as I look for spiritual reasons why such
disunity exists amongst people that essentially all believe the same things
doctrinally. Articles on this theme will be coming up in the WCG section
of the site from time to time, as unity is an issue
close to my heart (it has been since the website started J). As how
to explain the major dichotomy between Sabbath and Sunday-keepers having the
Holy Spirit, I have repeatedly sought God for answers, and sought to find them
in his Word. I think I have come close to some of the answers, discussed
in two articles I wrote. You can read them at these links: http://www.unityinchrist.com/wwcofg/Has%20the%20Sabbath%20Been%20Abrogated.htm and http://www.unityinchrist.com/hebrews/Hebrews4-1-16.htm. Part of the answer must
revolve around God’s sovereignty. These two articles don’t totally solve
the dichotomy, and it may never be solved this side of the 2nd Coming of
Jesus Christ. I do know what I saw, observed, and experienced within
those wonderfully warm, loving, spiritually obedient Christians in the Calvary
Chapels, who have an understanding of God’s Word par excellence. They
believe, as we believe, that the Church Jesus Christ sets up in the Millennial
Kingdom of God on earth will be both Sabbath and Holy Day observing (see http://www.unityinchrist.com/prophets/Zechariah/Zechariah4.htm and scroll to Zechariah
14).
“Back to the
dichotomy about Sabbath/Holyday observance verses Sunday observance. Both I and most Messianic Jewish believers
believe the bottom line of the issue is this: If a Sunday-observing Christian should prove through their own Biblical
studies about this issue that the Sabbath and Holy Days (of Leviticus 23) have
not been abrogated, then that person is obligated to start observing
them. But all Sunday-observing
Christians who have not sufficiently looked into this issue have no such
obligation to observe God’s Sabbath and Holy Days.”
Apart from a few other doctrinal differences, we have a lot in
common. I do believe they have a far better method of preaching sermons,
going expositorily through the Word of God, verse by
verse, chapter by chapter, book by book. There is
a lot we can learn from each other, that’s for sure, if we’d only humble
ourselves enough to do so. So that is the explanation of my personal
journey From Sabbath to Sunday to Sabbath again. I'm currently
attending a wonderful Messianic Jewish congregation in my hometown (in North
Central MA). This
website is totally non-denominational, and I am as well.
How This Site Came To Be And What It’s For
The
Lord has been inspiring me since 1995 to use some of my skills and talents in
the area of editing, transcribing and writing on this website, which has been
created for the express purpose of promoting spiritual growth and unity of
purpose throughout the Body of Christ, and also to help promote personal, local
church, national and international evangelism (getting the Gospel to the
world). The idea for this website came from a deep desire to help nourish
those members within the Worldwide Church of God while it was going through all
those ‘doctrinal changes’, which ended up destroying it as a Sabbath-keeping
Church of God. I was attempting to nourish them with transcripts of
excellent Calvary Chapel sermons which several Calvary Chapel pastors had graciously
given me permission to transcribe. I was attempting to nourish them with
the same high quality nourishment I had received (and still receive) from God’s
Word through these Calvary Chapels. Sadly, it didn’t do any good, as far
as I can see. I have a lot of talents, such as being able to absorb
spiritual knowledge like a sponge for 25 years in WCG, being able to take a lot
of tiny facts and put them into a big picture, things like that, but all with
the inspirational aid of the Holy Spirit, I can’t take credit for any of
it. I could never have created this website without God’s help and
inspiration.
This website I
believe has been designed by God, not me, to help foster and promote a degree
of unity within the greater Body of Christ (see http://www.unityinchrist.com/prophets/Zephaniah/Zephaniah1.htm and
scroll to the section on Zephaniah 2:1-3 and read). The crazy thing, and very painful too, is that
in order for me to be somewhat qualified for the task, the Lord had to shift me
in my spiritual journey through some of the major spiritually alive parts of
the Body of Christ. This meandering
spiritual journey, to meet those designs of the Lord, has been an extremely
painful journey, which, often as not, guaranteed I’d be sort of a spiritual
loner, not on purpose, but by the Lord’s design. What has made this spiritual journey
extremely painful, even now, is the fact that I don’t really fit anywhere,
doctrinally, within any denomination, because I’ve absorbed the true Biblical
understandings each has had to offer, whilst rejecting what I have Biblically
proven as error. So, doctrinally I’m a
misfit, and left with the constant feeling that wherever I reside in the Body
of Christ, I’m not totally comfortable or compatible. I have certain qualifications which have made
me (by the Lord’s design again, cf. Psalm 139) up for the task, this includes
having an analytical mind, an acute interest in history, science, and the
ability to in take a bunch of facts and boil them down to their most common denominator. But if I had to choose this path again, or
that of being an ordinary member of say a Cavalry Chapel, happily married, fat,
dumb and happy, I’d have gladly chosen the latter, instead of suffering through
a broken family because they didn’t understand my calling. The Body of Christ, in the spiritual opinion
of quite a few qualified pastors, Messianic Jewish and Christian alike, is due
for one last great Restoration and Revival. This website and ministries like it have been
designed by God to help nourish believers, new and old alike within the Body of
Christ, as it goes through that Restoration and Revival. Why? So
that they can finish the job Jesus gave all of us to do before the Tribulation,
World War III, comes upon the world (read Matthew 24:14-15). That link above also has an upper nav bar
above it, with hypertext links going to a few other good articles about
restoration and revival within the Body of Christ. Be sure to log onto them and read them if
you’re interested in doing the Lord’s Work before he comes.”
related link:
What is the Lord’s
Work which he wants accomplished before he returns? Matthew
24:14, “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a
witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” What is that Gospel of the Kingdom? see: http://www.unityinchrist.com/misc/WhatIsTheGospel%20.htm
Sincerely,
a brother in Christ,
Pete
Benson
Should
any of you sincerely start to question where you should attend, what church or
part of the Body of Christ you should be a part of, you might want to read this
article about choosing a church, at: http://www.unityinchrist.com/history2/choosingachurch.htm
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