You can’t revoke what was renounced as a matter of conscience over four years ago. On Dec. 28th, 2012, Greg Howell (pastor of the Goldendale Grace Brethren Church & chair of the FGBC PNW Ethics Committee & chair of the PNW Ministerial Examining Board) announced his handiwork of revoking my ministerial licensure with the FGBC on the World Wide Web.
THE FOLLOWING PORTION OF A LETTER I SENT OCT. 16, 2008, CLOSES WITH THIS STATEMENT, “I RENOUNCE MY FGBC LICENSURE AS AN ACT OF CONSCIENCE.”
…Shoemaker IS guilty of promoting pope, priest, sacrament, counter-reformer, and the ecumenical counsel leader Rev. Ginny Wagner! This is anti-christ heresy; upon anti-christ heresy; upon anti-christ heresy; upon anti-christ heresy; UPON a broad road to hell, false gospel, servant of the Devil, in a skirt.
I renounce my FGBC licensure as an act of conscience. Greg H. chaired the Ministerial Examining Board of “ordained” Sanhedrin who prefer to meet under the cover of darkness to PASS UNBIBLICAL JUDGMENTS and ENFORCE GAG ORDERS lest their lack of Biblical judgment be seen in the light of day… I cannot be subject to those who DO NOT LOVE THE GOSPEL as evidenced by the love of ambiguity, the love of apathy, and the love of hesitation when the GOSPEL IS CLEARLY BEING TRAMPLED ON MONTH AFTER MONTH, YEAR AFTER YEAR.
The Elders of BGBC are on the very edge of renouncing affiliation with the PNW district ministerium as an act of conscience. The Elders of BGBC are on the very edge of renouncing the FGBC as compromised beyond beneficial association.
THE FOLLOWING LETTER WAS SENT DEC. 24TH, 2012, IN RESPONSE TO GREG HOWELL’S CREDENTIAL “REVOKING” LETTER RECEIVED ON DEC. 21ST, 2012:
Greg Howell, PNW Ethics Committee, and the PNW FGBC Ministerial Examining Board,
I do not desire your approval, good opinion, or ministerial credentials. Having affirmation from those that affectionately embrace Don Shoemaker, but fight against and reject those who defend the Gospel from the attacks of Don Shoemaker and those like him, would be a mark of judgment and shame before the Lord Jesus on that day that we will all give an account. It is fitting that you sent your compassionless and cowardly letter on the 21st of Dec., three days before Christmas. Your letter states that you are stripping my ministerial credentials with the AGBM because of my refusal to withdraw the lawsuit; the lawsuit that was the legal defense of my family, other families, and the ministry of BGBC from the assault of criminal accusations that began at Christmas four years ago and continues to this day.
While lacking the heart to defend the Gospel, Greg Howell has displayed sufficient heart to lead the board to what is apparently a unanimous decision to officially strip me of my ministerial credentials with the PNW district and the AGBM. Greg Howell and his board know that the real issue at hand is my long standing contention that he has no real love of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as is evidenced by his gross compromise with Don Shoemaker’s assault upon the Gospel. The heretical articles in question were widely circulated in that Shoemaker submitted them to the local Seal Beach newspaper, posted them on a national FGBC blog, and sent them out to the churches of the FGBC in his Grace Community Church of Seal Beach monthly newsletter. In these articles he promoted the Pope; he promoted the Mass; he promoted the Roman Catholic priesthood and priest craft; he promoted the Counter Reformation and the counter reformer (St. Charles of Borromeo) who burned protestant reformers at the stake; and he promoted the Rev. Ginny Wagner’s broad road that leads to hell ministry to the Seal Beach community. Don Shoemaker is helping to damn a billion Catholic souls under Rome’s dead sacramental system, and inviting evangelicals join him in apostasy to taste the wonders of the sacrament. Greg Howell and his ethics board’s unconscionable response to Shoemaker’s heretical writings is to “conclude that he should exercise greater discretion in what he says from his cultural-engagement perspective.” In sharp contrast, Greg Howell and the same ethics board have ousted a pastor for using legal means in the defense of his family, other families, and the ministry of BGBC from four years of vicious criminal accusations of child abuse made person to person, church to church, on the World Wide Web, to the police, and to the DHS (child protection). Where Greg Howell and his board should readily condemn Gospel heresy and call for censure and disciplinary measures, they exercise broad minded understanding and compassion instead. Where Greg Howell and his board should have compassion on the afflicted and call for their aid, they condemn (what is at worst) a debatable lawsuit as a moral heresy and call for censure and disciplinary measures. The PNW Ethics Committee is unethical both in their judgment and passion, and in their lack of judgment and compassion.
Don Shoemaker is still in good standing with Greg Howell, the PNW Ethics Committee, the PNWFGBC Ministerial Examining Board, the PNW Ministerium, and the AGBM. In fact, Don Shoemaker’s blog is the first blog listed on our national FGBC website. Did Greg Howell, the PNW Ethics Committee, the PNWFGBC Ministerial Examining Board, and the PNW Ministerium give Don Shoemaker an ultimatum regarding his assault on the Gospel of Jesus Christ? No. Did they give Shoemaker until August 20th to recant, to “change his mind and notify the PNW Examining Board/Ministerium” or be recommended for the stripping of ministerial credentials? No. Shoemaker gets a pass on his assault of the Gospel, the right hand of fellowship, and a prominent and influential position in the FGBC. Chuck O’Neal gets stripped of his ministerial credentials with the AGBM three days before Christmas. After all, Chuck O’Neal dared to stand against Shoemaker’s heresy and four years later used lawful means to defend his family, the families of BGBC, and the ministry of from a four year campaign of defamation of the very worst kind. While lawsuits are not forbidden by Mathew Henry, Albert Barnes, or John Calvin,lawsuits are forbidden by Greg Howell and his board, no matter the circumstances. Heresy, apostasy, “another Gospel, which is not another” is not forbidden by Greg Howell and his board, it is rather a matter of debatable opinion.
The PNW Ethics Committee that met with the leadership of BGBC in the Dalles a few months back witnessed Greg Howell cut me off in the middle of my first sentence of explanation as to why we pursued legal means to defend our families and the ministry of BGBC. I was telling him that the embittered friends of a fired staff member tried to send me to prison and to take our children from our home with lies to the police and DHS… and he abruptly cut me off and said that he didn’t “mean to be rude” but he didn’t want to hear it. I made it clear that his behavior was “amazingly rude and heartless.” Greg Howell is no position to tell anyone that they need to apologize for bad behavior. His judge first, ask no questions later, accept no testimony later methodology is appalling and entirely unethical. This behavior was in keeping with the pattern that he had previously established in that the letter that he sent to the elders and deacons of BGBC already contained his final judgment and ultimatum regarding our circumstances before he heard a single word from a single person in the leadership or even attendance of BGBC. The judgment and ultimatum were rendered without any testimony. In his letter and in our subsequent meeting Greg Howell made it abundantly clear that he did not want any testimony. He heard testimony against his will, but dismissed it outright without missing a step. The lawsuit was a convenient excuse to oust a pastor who believes the reformation was more than a little theological misunderstanding, and that Gal. 1:6-7 fully applies to anyone (even Greg and his friend Don Shoemaker) who supports the Pope, priest, mass, and counter reformers of the Roman Catholic Church.The lawsuit was a wonderful opportunity to get rid of the pastor who will not abide Greg Howell’s personal compromise of the Gospel as he sits on the ecumenical ministerial board of Goldendale united with priest and liberal protestant enemies of the Lord Jesus Christ. His local ministerial cohorts help damn souls to Hell with a false Christ and a false Gospel as Greg plays patty-cake with them over social and community issues. Greg is very concerned about a debatable application of 1 Cor. 6 to the legal defense of our families and church. Greg is not concerned at all about 2 Cor. 6, 2 John, and 1 Cor. 16’s implications for his compromise of the Gospel.
2 Cor 6:14-18
Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? 15 And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? 16 And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said:
"I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people." 17 Therefore "Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you." 18 'I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty."
2 John 10-11
If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him; 11 for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds.
1 Cor 16:22
If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. O Lord, come!
Ed Chapman is a long time, faithful follower of Julie Anne Smith.
In answer to Ed's question, MATTHEW HENRY (CHARLES SPURGEON’S FAVORITE BIBLE COMMENTATOR), JOHN CALVIN, AND ALBERT BARNES support me, my family, and our church in a just defense against vicious criminal accusations vindictively made by the close friends of Don Miller (see http://wp.me/p2YEp0-54), a fired former staff member. These heavy weight pastor/theologians stand firmly with us against the evil assault of Christ's church and our families.
Here is Matthew Henry's commentary on 1 Cor. 6, “Here is at least an intimation that they went to law for trivial matters, things of little value; for the apostle blames them that they did not suffer wrong rather than go to law (v. 7), which must be understood of matters not very important. In matters of great damage to ourselves or families, we may use lawful means to right ourselves. We are not bound to sit down and suffer the injury tamely, without stirring for our own relief; but, in matters of small consequence, it is better to put up with the wrong. Christians should be of a forgiving temper. And it is more for their ease and honor to suffer small injuries and inconveniences than seem to be contentious.”
Mr. Chapman, I believe you could find hundreds if not thousands of Pastors who would strongly denounce ALL papal acts against Christ (such as offering up the daily sacrifice of mass as justification for sins). A quick search on this website alone yields numerous sermons on this very topic. No matter how illustrious a man may be in his organization, if he starts to slide into heresy (Mr. Shoemaker), it is a Christ-obeying Pastor’s duty to rebuke him. Again, I commend Mr. O’Neal for his stand here, despite it costing him the FGBC’s censure. It’s obvious to me the lawsuit was a convenient excuse to oust O’Neal for his Christ-honoring standards now distasteful to ecumenical groups. This happens all the time in compromised organizations. Additionally, our faith should never be the product of group think. We should aim to please Christ alone. Remember Noah? How many supported his ark building? And if I practiced DARING people to do something, I might dare you to name one leader in Noah’s day that supported him.
It is disgusting to me that Mr. Howell would publish his revoking your credentials on an atheist site like The Wartburg Watch and Spritual Sounding. I've looked at your blog on what Julieanne Smith did and can't believe pastors didn't stick together against such evil. Mr. Howell should be ashamed of his work there.
You wrote in your missive that, “the liturgy will include a Creed that goes to the heart of Gospel and will include words spoken and sung that take us to the Cross.” It is here that you carelessly trample not on Scripture alone, but upon the TRUE Gospel, the FINISHED work of the Cross, and the LORD Jesus Christ.
…The Catholic gospel is a complex system of sacramental faith and works in which God’s grace is doled out sacrament by sacrament… The sixth point of the Grace Brethren Statement of Faith says: SALVATION. A complete and eternal salvation by God's grace alone received as the gift of God through personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and His finished work (Ephesians 2:8-9; Titus 3:5-7; 1 Peter 1:18-19).
In your continual promotion of the ministry of pope and priest alike, you trample our Biblical position on SALVATION beneath your feet in the dung of man’s tradition and papal decree. You insult the lives, testimonies, and shed blood of the martyrs that died for the true Gospel that our statement of faith declares.
*The excerpts from the letter below were written to Don Shoemaker four years ago, exhorting him to repent and stand by his professed commitment to the FGBC doctrinal distinctives. I EXHORT YOU TO DO THE SAME:
…As a pastor of a Grace Brethren Church you have professed agreement with a basic FGBC covenant and Statement of Faith. Section One of that covenant reads, “The sovereign congregations which are members of this corporation are united in accepting the Holy Scriptures as the sole guide and authority in all matters of faith, doctrine and practice” (http://www.fgbc.org/whoarewe/covenant-and-statement-of-faith.cfm). How does finding “spiritual nourishment” (and encouraging others to do so) in Roman Catholic “liturgy,” “Creed,” and “homily” based on an amalgamation of Holy Scripture, unholy papal decree, and the unholy authoritative traditions of Rome, reflect a commitment to “the Holy Scriptures as the sole guide and authority in all matters of faith, doctrine and practice”?
…Your professed unity with the FGBC is based upon a claim to hold to the “Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible,” and yet you trample upon the Bible and that claim, through your continual promotion of the Roman Catholic Church.
You wrote, "As you know, the FGBC is a Fellowship of churches. Our association as churches is relational (around doctrinal distinctives of course), but our functioning together is because of our relationships with each other. That is why we are a 'fellowship' rather than a 'denomination.'"
I exhorted Dr. Shoemaker to cease trampling upon the FGBC doctrinal distinctives four years ago. I exhorted you to defend the FGBC doctrinal distinctives, and more importantly the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Word of God, four years ago. I exhort you to do so again now. Repent Greg. Defend the Gospel. Defend the Word of God. Defend the very heart of the FGBC doctrinal distinctives. Repent of your fight against those who are defending the Gospel, Word of God, and the FGBC distinctives. Repent of your unholy alliance with the pope, priest, mass, counter reformer, Rev. Ginny Wagner promoting Don Shoemaker as a member of the AGBM in good standing. Do the Biblical and “honorable” thing and repent, OR withdraw yourself from the AGBM, the FGBC, and the pastorate. BGBC is yet committed to defending the Gospel, the Word of God, and the FGBC doctrinal distinctives that are built upon it. Repent and join us in that defense Greg.
Chuck, To my knowledge, I never received your Oct 16, 2008 letter renouncing your licensure. This is the first that I have heard of it. And this is the first that I have become aware that you were even thinking of separating from the PNW or the FGBC. I’m surprised that your renunciation or the letter did not come up at our meeting in The Dalles. Also, I am puzzled, as to why if you renounced your ministerial credentials, have you been paying your dues? As you know, the FGBC is a Fellowship of churches. Our association as churches is relational (around doctrinal distinctives of course), but our functioning together is because of our relationships with each other. That is why we are a “fellowship” rather than a “denomination.” If as your Oct. 2008 letter indicates, that you and the elders question your desire for continued association with the FGBC, maybe the honorable act on your part would be to withdraw as a member church. Also, if you don’t mind, I would appreciate a full copy of your October 16, 2008 letter.
Pastor O'Neal, congratulations on leaving that fellowship! You can know with certainty that our Lord Jesus Christ would not want His name on that liberal, Christ-minimizing, pope-promoting, ecumenical mess that is the new Grace Brethren Fellowship!! You can stand tall with the African Anglican churches that left their "fellowships" over women bishops and homosexuality promotion. We need more Pastors that will stand for the Gospel!
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