LAWTON CHURCH OF GOD, LAWTON
OKLAHOMA
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NINETEEN REASONS WHY I AM LEAVING
THE CHURCH OF THE NAZARENE By Glenn Griffith There
have been so many inquiries and so many rumors as to why I am leaving the Church
of the Nazarene that I have felt moved of the Lord to explain the cause and give
some personal reasons why. In
the first place, I would like to say that it was not an over-night thought, nor
just snap judgment. I have prayed and meditated over this vital and tremendous
decision for at least two years. To leave a church whose doctrines on vital
salvation of the soul were and are sound and circumscribes the need of a totally
depraved soul, was not an easy decision to make, and it took time and prayer and
heart burden to bring me to the point of leaving. But
as I preached and observed in my thirty years of labors, I became convinced in
my way of thinking, that I could not go along with the program of the church as
it is carried on now. Many, no doubt, in leadership feel differently about the
conditions and would say that the church is in the greatest revivals and in the
best condition spiritually it has ever been in. But I am giving my reasons why I
would leave a full slate in the field of evangelism and leave the immediate
fellowship of a great crowd of friends and brethren who may not understand my
move. I
do not set myself up as a “more holy than thou” person, nor do I leave with
rancor in my soul, but when I voluntarily sent my credentials in to the Board of
General Superintendents, I sent them in just as clean as when Dr. Roy T.
Williams gave them to me the 30th day of August 1931 at Dodge City, Kansas.
Among the questions Dr. Williams asked me was this one: If at any time you
should come to the place where you could not embrace the whole program of the
church would you voluntarily return your credentials to the proper
authorities?” (or words to that effect). I feel that time has come when I
cannot go along with the whole program of the church as it is today, and here
are some vital reasons why. 1.
The church I joined in 1926 was a virile, impassioned and prayerful church, but
now it seems cold, anemic and formal in its worship, generally speaking. 2.
In many places the evangelist, preaching under unction the doctrine and
experience of sanctification as a delivering second work of grace, finds it a
struggle to have a revival, because of resistance from so called liberals who
make up a large part of the congregation, which neutralizes the efforts of
conviction upon the crowd as a whole. 3.
Preachers are urged by leaders not to preach on the negative side of the gospel,
but only the positive. In my way of thinking the Law, or negative, must come
first, then the positive, 4.
The doctrine of repentance, pertaining particularly to confession of covered
sin, seems to me to be touched very lightly and many teach that there are some
sins committed, especially like a husband or wife being unfaithful, that they
should confess it only to God and not to the person sinned against. But the Word
teaches that we must be reconciled to the one who hath ought against us.
(Matthew 5:23–26 (Proverbs 28:13). 5.
In my way of thinking the General Rules of the church are so abused by
interpreting them on a human basis instead of Divine intention, that the
standards of the church are almost obliterated by compromise with the world. 6.
The membership committee in a great many places is a forgotten committee, and
nothing is done about this breaking of the church law. As a consequence the
church is filling up with members unacquainted with the real church standards. 7.
The ring ceremony has taken the place of the modest wedding service as
prescribed by the Manual, where no ring is mentioned nor any place made for it
in the service. 8.
Doesn’t there seem to be a definite shifting from insisting on the membership
being LOYAL to God, to being LOYAL to the church and ecclesiastical leadership? 9.
In my observations, there seems to be an overshadowing by a liberal type of
ministry over the so-called radical type ministry by boosting of the liberal to
the discouragement of the radical type. 10.
There seems to be a distinct preference given to seminary graduates over the
self-educated preacher. It also seems that there is a stronger emphasis upon
being scholastically prepared, than to be baptized with the Holy Ghost fire. 11.
Another reason is this: I am an honest man and find I cannot support a church
financially by giving and raising money in Thanksgiving and Easter offerings and
paying a general budget, whose church and leaders have and support TV and a play
program. These offerings all go into the general budget out of which SUPPORTS OF
ALL OF THESE APOSTATE INNOVATIONS ARE PAID. Also the Seminary is conducted by a
booster of TV. Being honest with God and man, I cannot support all of this and
cannot induce others to do what I cannot do myself. 12.
Another reason is this: That even though the so-called “Revised Standard
Version” of the Bible has been frowned upon by the church leaders, and by many
great leaders, and some branded, because of its questionable committee regarding
their Communistic-front affiliations, as a blasphemous manuscript, yet is it
quoted from in the Sunday School literature and in the Seminary and in the
colleges by some of the faculties and I cannot be a part of such teaching going
to our young people and preachers. 13.
Another reason is this: Because many of the faithful old-fashioned saints -- who
do not believe in church sponsored sports such as: Sunday School baseball,
softball, basketball teams, and do not believe in banquets in the church
basements or on the church property, and do not believe in TV, -- are being set
aside and called old fossils or some such names, when in most cases these are
the ones that make up the prayer meeting crowds, and are faithful to the means
of grace of the church. 14.
Another reason is this: As I have preached over the nation in camps and
churches, saints come to me by the scores who say they are starved for soul food
and that they never hear old-fashioned, pungent truth from the pulpit in their
churches and ask me “What will we do?” “We go to church and feel worse
when we leave than when we went, because there was no unction on the preacher
and no message of life.” 15.
Another reason is this: In observing the youth and their calls into special
service there seems to be a distinct discouragement among many, for they feel
there is not much future in the church for the so-called radical, young preacher
or missionary for advancement or open doors. Also, there are older preachers who
because of their so-called radical convictions have been set aside and refused
even to be given evangelistic commissions or recommended to churches, who talked
to me personally and they were clean, fruitful ministers. 16.
Another reason is this: That the preachers, both pastors and evangelists, who
preach with earnestness on worldliness, such as bobbed-hair, TV, slacks, jeans,
jewelry (including the wedding ring) (and which the first generation of Nazarene
women never wore or at least you would not find one in 500 who did), etc., are
being frowned upon and barely tolerated by many leaders. 17.
Another reason is this: That in a large majority of the churches worldlings that
are painted, be-jeweled, show-going, shorts-wearers are acknowledged as
Christians, and many times are given an official place in the church. They even
teach our children and take part in the choirs and music, professing Holiness,
when the Word of God condemns all of these worldly things. 18.
Another reason is this: There seems to be a greater anxiety to build a great
institution than to reap a great harvest of souls. As the enormous sums of money
spent for buildings, such as from twenty to forty-five thousand dollars for a
parsonage and up to three hundred fifty thousand or more for churches and
educational buildings, when tens of thousands of heathen are starving for food
and the Gospel and many consecrated young men and women are called and burdened
to go to mission fields and are not sent. With all this the leaders preach
sacrifice and there seems to be money for banquets, luncheons, and rest
conclaves, but still this generation goes by a seemingly unburdened church in
the treadmills of death to the judgment without God and “nobody cared for
their souls.” 19.
All these nineteen reasons and more which I have not written have created such a
condition of confusion and pressure that in all fairness to God, the Bible,
scattered Sheep of the House of Israel, and my own soul, I felt I could no
nothing else but to withdraw from the Church of the Nazarene and give what
little I had to gather together the scattered, starving sheep who wanted to go
the old fashioned way of Holiness with standards and convictions. (Jeremiah
6:13–16). I
stepped out of the Church of the Nazarene not knowing the future. I had no
promise of a place or salary. I gave up all the meetings and there were enough
to run me into 1960 and further if I had cared to slate more. God seemed to ask
me to step out under the stars and I have gone asking only to be in the will of
God. It could not have come, it seems, at a more inconvenient time for the
human, as I still owed a little on my little home in I
voluntarily sent in my credentials to headquarters at “It is later than we think.” Who knows but this may be the gathering together of the bloodwashed for the Rapture? Please pray for us if you feel a pull, or join us in this final battle for the Master Jesus Christ.
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