The following is part two of a three part guest series from Jerry Moon, a former United Pentecostal Church member. See Part 1.
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Within weeks we started noticing a quite visible change in what we thought were our church friends. I had grown up in the United Pentecostal Church. Mother was raised UPC. My grandmother was UPC. All my friends were UPC. UPC was my life.
We began to notice when we went to the store, our friends would walk the other way to avoid us. Once I honked and waved at a older couple from our now former church and in unison they both turned their heads to look the other way.
I did have a couple of aunts that were UPC that were proud of me, but much of the family in the UPC treated me like my UPC friends did.
About three months after starting the church, my dad called me up. He wanted to know if we had room for another Moon in the church. He shared they were tired of hearing their boys being the sermon topic every service.
I now knew why everyone had been shunning us. Like the lies he had told when his son got a divorce, he was now telling them on us, to turn our friends against us. If possible he would have turned our own parents against us.
This is a tactic practiced by cults. The other members never want to leave because they don’t want to go through the same thing.
I’ve been told that the UPC would rather see people when they leave waste their life on a bar stool. They make good examples to the rest, of what happens to those that leave. It will happen to them if they leave. But what to do with those that don’t quit living for God?
I’ll remind you, at this point my life and preaching was still very much UPC. We just didn’t have UPC on our door. The only problem I had at that time was why the UPC was looking for the second coming of Christ when he was clearly living in us.
I had even subscribed to Irvin Baxter’s End Time Bible Studies so I could teach the book of Revelation correctly. But when I tried to teach his lessons, I always hoped no one would ask questions.
Dr. Marvin Arnold preached our first anniversary service. When I joined the Biblical Apostolic Organization (BAO), I explained my only problem with the doctrine. He had no problem with it. He has went on to be with the Lord since then, but his books are still on the internet.
When I shared this on my Facebook profile, there were comments that not all UPC churches are this way. They are right. There were two churches in the Texaco District that didn’t treat us this way.
One was a pastor that I later found out had big problems of his own. But despite it all, I’m grateful for the kindness he showed. And I’m grateful for the renewed friendship of late. Because of that, this is where I leave this.
The other was my wife’s pastor. He never turned his back on us to the day he went to be with Jesus. These two men were a encouragement to me.
I had various UPC ministries from around the States that preached for us and encouraged us. No, they are not all like this.
My wife’s pastor eventually left the UPC. He joined a little organization called the Apostolic Brotherhood International. He asked me to join as well and for a while I was a part of both the ABI and the BAO. These two groups then talked about merging, but never did.
Shortly after starting the church we were getting quite a group of young people. Growing up, church camp was a big part of my life. I wanted the best for our youth.
I went to Amarillo and met with a board member and talked to them about letting our youth come to the UPC Church Camp. I was saddened to hear that our youth were not welcome at their youth camp. It was quite shocking to me. I had always assumed everyone was welcome to go to heaven. But obviously this wasn’t the case. We later found a place for them to go to camp with another group.
When I went to the very first ABI camp meeting, I met an interesting preacher. He came up to me and introduced himself. After introducing himself and where he lived, he looked at me and said, “You may have known my dad. He used to pastor in Borger, Texas.”
My mind begin to whirl and I could tell by the way he was looking at me something was up. I finally told him I didn’t know a pastor in Borger by his last name, thinking that maybe his dad pastored a Baptist Church or some other denomination.
When he told me his dad’s name I was shocked. He at one time had been my pastor. One of those hard core, by the book kinda pastors. The kind you were scared to breath around types.
He begin to tell me a story. His mom had him out of wedlock. When his dad and her got married, his dad thought it best that her grandparents raise him and he carried his mothers maiden name. They then had nothing to do with him because his father was afraid that he would hurt his ministry.
I was floored. It was at this point that I begin to think, “Maybe I’m too good for that organization.” My journey began to get easier.
I’m not sure why, but it was just me and my dad who went to the local UPC church to a fellowship meeting. They had invited a preacher that had written a Bible Study and he was supposed to teach how to get and give these Bible studies.
Problem was he had just seen a great revelation. He kept getting off the subject and talking about red heifers and such. You could tell the ministry didn’t like it. They were squirming in their seats. He finally told them, “I know what I was called here to teach. But this is what God has given me. You don’t even have to pay me if you don’t want.” What a sermon.
A few months went by and I decided I needed to understand Revelation if I was going to continue pastoring. I had already tried pastor Baxter of Endtime. While I thought it was great stuff, it didn’t make any sense. I’ll try this new guy and if that don’t work, I’ll go back to Baxter.
I invited him back to Borger, promised him I would treat him better than his last experience and when he was through preaching the weekend, he hadn’t said a word about Revelation. I was upset.
Before I took him back to the airport I mentioned this to him. He said, “Brother Moon, get a book called Matthew 24 Fulfilled by John Bray.” The rest was history. I begin to climb out of a doctrine that I had believed was true all my life. My experience with God had just begun.
The next year after reading Matthew 24 Fulfilled was one of most amazing years of my life. I was blessed to have my dad share this experience with me. He had always been such a great teacher.
For the next year I felt like I was on a high. I couldn’t sleep at night. I’d wake up in the middle of the night with a scripture on my mind, thinking that’s what that scripture means.
I don’t know how many sermons I had to re-preach. After preaching something, I’d later realize that wasn’t what it meant at all. My new way of viewing Revelation was affecting my whole Bible.
Sometimes dad would push me along, other times I would push dad along. During the middle of a sermon I’ll never forget dad looking at me funny. I knew I missed the boat. I’d stop and reexamine the verse. Sure enough, I was off base.
After that first year I gave up my old UPC phrase I’d learned. I used to say while preaching, “We’ve got the truth.” My revelation had changed so much in the last year, I finally told our church that I can no longer preach we have the truth. I can only claim, we are trying to walk in the truth.
Not everyone shared my newfound joy for the word. Dr. Marvin Arnold was in bad health. He turned the reigns over to a newcomer into the BAO. He had been told of my new ideas.
I got a call one day and was told I was no longer in the BAO. I was also told to change the name of our church. I stopped sending my dues that day, but I wasn’t changing our name without a battle. I contacted a lawyer. We are still Biblical Apostolic Church.
The last I heard the BAO is no longer a organization. If you expect everyone to just believe like you, it will eventually just be you.
See Part 3.
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