Some organizations often love to refer to the doctrine of Balaam.  They like to apply it to someone who used to be with them and is no longer in their organization.  By one group, it is often applied to me and if someone takes a stand with us, they like to tell the one who does so he is following Balaam.

 

Now it is strange that people who claim to be so intelligent use these words without analyzing the true interpretation of the doctrine of Balaam.  People are sometimes like a 'Polly parrot'; they speak words, but not being properly placed, they are without  meaning and have no foundation.  Let me at this time quote a Scripture that will give an open view of the type of people who are truly Balaam's followers.  II Peter 2:15, 'Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Boser, who loved the wages of unrighteousness'.  Now according to this verse of Scripture, it wasn't those who stood for the right, the Word of God, that were his followers, but those who ceased to be obedient to the Bible.  A study of Balaam's life would reveal that the doctrine of Balaam was against a one man ruler and would not accept God's anointed to be the highest tribune of authority.

 

In the little leaflet written years ago by A. J. Tomlinson, he pointed out that a man named Zimri, referred to in the Bible, was the last to be the leader of Balaam's doctrine in those days.  Let me quote his words, "In continuing this subject I wish to call attention to the address delivered by Zimri to Moses and the congregation in defiance of government and the God given laws to Israel while he was under the influence of the damnable Balaam doctrine just before his death.  I give it in full as recorded by Josephus, the Jewish historian."  "But Zimri arose up and said, 'Yes, indeed Moses, thou art at liberty to make use of such laws as thou art so fond of, and hast, by accustoming thyself to them made them firm; otherwise, if things had not been this, thou hadst often been punished before now, and hadst known that the Hebrews are not easily put upon; but thou shalt not have me one of thy followers in thy tyrannical commands, for thou dost nothing else hitherto but under pretense of laws, and of God, wickedly impose on us slavery, and gain dominion to thyself, while thou deprivest us of the sweetness of life, which consists of acting according to our own wills, and is the right of free men, and of those that have no lord over them.  Nay, indeed, this man Moses is harder upon the Hebrews than were the Egyptians themselves, as pretending to punish, according to his laws, ever one's acting what is most disagreeable to himself; but thou thyself better deservest to suffer punishment, who presumest to abolish what every one acknowledges to be what is good for him and aimest to make thy single opinion to have more force than that of all the rest: and what I now do, and think to be right, I shall not hereafter deny to be according to my own sentiments."

 

Now this points out that Balaam's doctrine believed in the people being the highest tribune of authority in an assembly and not the one man anointed leader.  Let us look to another Scripture referred to by the beloved Jude in regard to the doctrine of Balaam and his followers  in Jude 1:11, 'Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core (Korah).' In this verse of Scripture, it is evident that Cain, Balaam, and Core (Korah) all contained a principle of this doctrine.  You know the story of Cain and the story of Balaam, also the story of Core (Korah).  A study of the sixteenth chapter of Numbers will clearly show that Core (Korah) and his followers disrupted the assembly by rising up with the people to make them on the same level with the anointed leader, not speaking of them being the highest tribune of authority, but equal with the leader.  God destroyed those who supported a doctrine of that kind.  Every people throughout the Bible who rose to make themselves the authority, instead of the anointed, has pointed in the way of Cain, Balaam, and Core (Korah).  To everyone who makes a stand for The Church of God, for which we have since 1957, have nothing to worry about, for we stood for the right and against those who supported the people, that is the assembly, to be the highest tribune of authority over the anointed.

 

It is not us that have gone in the way of Balaam, but those whom we have left.  They have forsaken the right way.  Satan has always made the doctrine of Balaam to creep in among God's people.  It is a doctrine to destroy real true Theocratic Government.  Once it has gained its hold in the Church, that group of people would cease to be the Church, for Church is government and government is Church.  True Theocratic government is to have an anointed leader, a servant of God, ruler over God's house and over God's goods, not the 'general assembly' for the 'general assembly' is the people, and the people are to be led not dictate over the ruler.  Therefore, we do not even so much as resemble Balaam and his followers, but those who have forsaken Theocratic government do, these people we left and they were cut off June 13, 1960.  They have gone greedily after filthy lucre and the way of Cain, which is hatred, and the way of Balaam and Core (Korah), wanting everyone to be the pre-eminence and trying to hide it as being humble.  When deep beneath the hidden surface, it is secret council to lead the people away from the truth, just as the Pharisees desired the seat of Moses and would not accept an anointed leader as the pre-eminence.

 

This doctrine sprung up in one of the churches in Asia; consequently, God, through the beloved John on the Isle of Patmos, wrote a letter calling their attention to the doctrine of Balaam creeping in and unless something was done, it would be the means of destroying the Church.  The doctrine of Balaam is a serious doctrine classed with the doctrine of Core (Korah).  This is one of Satan's great weapons, one of the gates of hell to cause the Church to cease being The Church if it is given the pre-eminence.  I thank God that we are still on true Bible lines and have true Theocratic government, the Bible our only Law Book and an anointed leader to execute that book to the people.  We have not forsaken the right, not have we gone in the way of Balaam.  The Church of God marches on, reaping the great harvest in the fulfillment of God's Holy Word.  Amen.