Stanley R. Rader Resigns executive Responsibilities – continues A.I.C.F., Legal and Financial Advisor to Herbert W. Armstrong
by Herbert W. Armstrong
Stanley R. Rader has decided to resign from his executive responsibilities as Treasurer and Board Member, effective March 1. He had decided to make this resignation effective early in January, 1979. But the sudden invasion of the Attorney General’s Office lawsuit on January 3, 1979, made it necessary for him to stay on and direct our legal defence until the lawsuit was dropped.
On Wednesday, February 25, a congress of leading ministers and office managers from all points around the world heard the Pastor General, Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong, define and reemphasize the spiritual organization of the Church, and update them on the plunge forward now under way as we enter the homestretch of the Work of the Living God.
The following was the crux of Mr. Armstrong’s address to the congress of ministers.
Message to Congress of Leading Ministers from all parts of the world, at Pasadena, February 25, 1981.
TO THE CONGRESS OF LEADING MINISTERS FROM ALL PARTS OF THE WORLD, ASSEMBLED AT PASADENA.
GREETINGS:
I have called this Congress of Leading Ministers of God’s Church world wide because:
1) Conditions in the world fulfilling Biblical prophecies are now fast accelerating, indicating we are, indeed, in the very last days of this present evil world, and
2) This has necessitated a dynamic stepping up in the intensity of God’s Work by His Church proclaiming Christ’s Gospel of the soon-coming KINGDOM OF GOD, and to acquaint you with the plans for this intensified homestretch finishing of the Great Commission the living Jesus Christ has called us to do, and
3) To UPDATE you, so that you may update the brethren under you in the true PURPOSE, the organization and government of the Church of GOD for this time and this paramount Commission.
Former Prime Minister Winston Churchill, speaking before a joint session of the United States Congress at the time of World War II said, “There is a PURPOSE being worked out here below.” A Higher Power above is working out His PURPOSE! That purpose is the creation of perfect, holy and righteous CHARACTER in separately-created beings for continuing God’s creative Work throughout the endless UNIVERSE perpetually, time without end.
First, while God can create separate living entities, this righteous spiritual CHARACTER cannot be created automatically by fiat. The individual created being must make his own decision and take his own action in the CHARACTER-creation.
God first created angels. He placed angels on this earth at it’s creation. God set a throne of earth wide rulership on the earth. He placed on that throne a super archangel, the great cherub Lucifer, to administer the GOVERNMENT OF GOD over the earth and those inhabiting it.
Lucifer rebelled and led his angels into rebellion. He became Satan the Devil. His angels became demons. They are SPIRIT beings with immortal life. Satan is still on that throne, invisible to human eyes, TODAY!
So God created MAN in GOD’S image, but composed of MATERIAL flesh and blood from the GROUND. The first man, Adam, made the decision for his HUMAN FAMILY – the WORLD – to reject the GOVERNMENT OF GOD, based on the LAW of God. His sin cut THE WORLD as a whole – all but the minute FEW God would specially call –off from God and His immortal-life-impregnating HOLY SPIRIT, UNTIL the restoration of the GOVERNMENT OF GOD over the earth. They are reserved for their JUDGMENT DAY after restoration of GOD’S GOVERNMENT over the earth – in a resurrection to judgment in an afterlife, as explained in Revelation 20, Ezekiel 37 and other Scriptures.
Jesus Christ, the second Adam, came more than 1950 years ago. He QUALIFIED to restore the GOVERNMENT OF GOD, and to establish on earth the KINGDOM OF GOD. He said, “I will build my Church and the gates of the grave shall not prevail against it.”
The Church of God which He founded in A.D. 31, is a SPIRITUAL ORGANISM – not a secular human organization. But it is ORGANIZED on God’s spiritual pattern as explained in I Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4 and other New Testament Scriptures. Of course GOD the Father is HEAD over ALL. Jesus Christ is living Head of the Church. Under Him apostles were given oversight of the Church and its organized Work. Though a spiritual organism, it is organized, not on a carnal human pattern, but on God’s spiritual pattern.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the MESSAGE HE PROCLAIMED! That Message was the Gospel of the KINGDOM OF GOD – the restoration of the GOVERNMENT
of God by the coming KINGDOM of God.
The Apostolic Church from 31 A.D. proclaimed that Message, but with special emphasis on the resurrection of Jesus Christ, of which they were eyewitnesses. The population of the whole world then was probably no larger than one of the states of the U.S.A. There were no mechanical and technological facilities such as we have today, in areas of COMMUNICATION and TRANSPORTATION.
The two SPIRITUAL AREAS of the PURPOSE of the Church are, 1) proclaiming the Good News of the KINGDOM OF GOD for a witness to the nations of the world (Matthew 24:14), and 2) to “feed the flock” – on the spiritual food of the Word of God. That’s ALL they had in that day. But today we carry on God’s Work in a world multiplied larger in population – a mechanized, mechanical world with instrumentalities to work with, never dreamed of in the first century.
The basic organizational pattern is the SAME – but today we must utilize SUPPORTING SERVICES in scientific, technological and mechanical areas that were nonexistent in the first century. Moreover we have to deal with the world’s governments in a manner quite different.
Therefore I show you an overview CHART of the Church’s Organization and Government to carry on the Work of God by His Church in this 20th Century (Matt. 24:14; Mal. 3:1-5 & 4; Hag. 2).
Now we are already into a stepped-up homestretch spurt of this END-TIME Work God has given us to do. I am already deep into a new series of television and radio programs. I have twelve of the new programs already recorded in advance, beside those already aired.
Of course the major city newspaper full-page messages have been under way, and especially in the Wall Street Journal. In that paper we reach just about everybody who OWNS or wants to own the properties, and especially corporate properties of the U.S., and everybody who runs, or wants to run, the governments of the United States. We plan to greatly expand this means of sending out Christ’s Message. Just day before yesterday the number one TV station of Chicago, WGN, opened to us. That is the most powerful outlet for reaching that populous midwest area since the radio program on WLS many years ago which built the Church membership in that region.
We have plans for stepping up the newsstand circulation of The PLAIN TRUTH. We plan to resume purchasing large space for Christ’s Message in such publications as Reader’s Digest and TV Guide, which have MASSIVE circulations reaching many MILLIONS. For all of this I am having to ask our members and co-workers to make extra sacrifices and increase their freewill offerings. We DO NOT, and WILL NOT solicit the public for contributions. But God does expect His people to make sacrifices for Him, especially at critical times.
I shall need the support of our Ministry in this, so that the additional expansions may be financed. All this additional pressure we are putting on in taking Christ’s Message more powerfully now to a multiplied listening, viewing and reading public will, in a few months, begin to bring in additional NEW VOLUNTARY co-workers. The additional money we must put into this expanded program now is like pump-priming – where we used to put an amount of water into the pump to prime it, and then it produced a flow of water multiple times larger than the original priming.
Now I come to another matter.
Just over two years ago, on January 3, 1979, armed deputies under the California Attorney General’s office suddenly, without notice, invaded the Pasadena headquarters of God’s Church and College. It was a massive lawsuit attack that threatened to DESTROY God’s Church and His Work.
It was primarily through the extraordinary work of Mr. Stanley R. Rader that the Church, its activities, facilities for those activities, properties and assets were protected, preserved, kept in continuous operation, and their destruction prevented. These properties and facilities, which I would conservatively value at more than $100,000,000, were saved for the Church.
1) Mr. Rader had the expertise (prior to this) to guide the installation of what I feel undoubtedly is the most sophisticated accounting system of any church in the United States prior, of course, to this massive government, unconstitutional invasion. During our legal defense, which he masterminded, he had the wisdom to hire the largest C.P.A. firm in the United States, Arthur Andersen & Company, to audit all our records, and to relate to this very prestigious accounting firm so as to clear the Church and its officers of any allegations of financial wrongdoing. This was a mastermind strategical move. The Attorney General’s case was doomed from the time of the Arthur Andersen & Company audit.
2) Mr. Rader masterminded the bringing together in our defense highly qualified attorneys from at least seven top legal firms to defend the Church in the many hearings and court appearances. Mr. Rader had the ability to command the respect of these prestigious legal firms, and to assume overall legal leadership as a Master General of a Master Legal Army to defend us against the overwhelming legal army of the State.
3) Mr. Rader spent much time in Sacramento working behind the scenes with other organizations that were working to put the Petris Bill through the Legislature. This Bill nullified the law on which the Attorney General’s office based their case against the Church.
4) For the two years Mr. Rader was working effectively with the media nationally – Television, radio, and the press – using expertise in the media field over and beyond ordinary lawyer services. He appeared on talk shows over the nation, on many interviews, press conferences, turning public opinion in the Church’s favor.
5) He utilized authorship in writing articles, and his book Against The Gates of Hell, communicating the Church side of the lawsuit before the world.
6) He had the extraordinary ability to coordinate all of this and put it together in an effective and winning spearhead.
These activities extended in extraordinary manner completely beyond the abilities and services and efforts of even the best and most famous of attorneys. Yet normal attorney’s fees, totally incomparable to these extraordinary and effective activities, would run into many hundreds of thousands of dollars. Corporations have to pay very highly for ordinary legal services in corporate lawsuits. Ordinary legal services, even from top lawyers of national reputation, in my judgment, could not have won this battle and kept God’s Church alive and active. I feel that Mr. Rader’s salary is grossly inadequate for these extraordinary services.
Mr. Rader had expressed a desire to retire from official Church executive position prior to the January 3, 1979 state invasion. He and I had agreed to his retirement from this executive position very shortly before January 3, 1979, to take effect very soon after the beginning of the year of 1979. When the State attack was launched January 3, it became necessary for him to stay on.
For many years now Mr. Rader has rendered extremely valuable services to this Church in the fields of Law, Accounting and Finance, besides invaluable services as my assistant in carrying Christ’s Gospel Message to and through Kings, Emperors, Presidents, Prime Ministers, and other leaders of nations over all the continents of the world. He has the expertise in the field of government to complement me in talking to as many as SEVENTY heads of governments, or near heads. I feel sure no man has talked in private conversation with as many such government heads, in their own capitals over the world, as have Mr. Rader and I.
I feel this Church would be derelict in its appreciation if it does not make suitable acknowledgment for such service, rendered two years after Mr. Rader had planned to retire from active executive duty.
For the past five months or so he has said publicly in the public press, and before our own congregations, that it is his desire to return to private law practice, and has made public statements of intent to resign as Treasurer and Board member of the Church by July 1. Now he has asked that this date be moved up to March 1.
To show our appreciation, it is my judgment as Pastor General of this Church, that we should express our gratitude and heartfelt appreciation by a special bonus of $250,000, net to him.
I would at this time like a voice approval from you who are leaders in the Ministry of this Church.
Mr. Rader will continue on as Executive Vice President of the A.I.C.F., the performing artist series in the Ambassador Auditorium, and in time and space buying for T.V., radio, and publication space, and as my chief advisor in legal and financial areas and in such Gospel trips abroad as I shall take, but resigning his executive responsibilities in the office of Treasurer.
Mr. Leroy Neff, Evangelist in God’s Church, has been appointed as Acting Treasurer.
