MORE SAD STUFF

Hello my name is [WITHHELD].

I want to thank you for setting up the R.C. help site. I was a member of R.C.A. for 8 years and by the grace of God I have been totally set free from the abusive control and miss guilded information that I so easily believed was the word and proof of a Father God seeking to save all of mankind from the fires of Hell.

As a youth the R.C.A. was the first contact I ever had with a pentcostal church and although as a child I was sent to Sunday School our home and up bringing was not a Christian one so I easily grew to trust and believe the oversight.

I know and understand only to well the ways in which peoples lives have and can be affected by the Revival Centres and other so called loving, caring church groups that claim that their ways are The Way. During the time I was with the Revival Centres My mother and younger brother passed away and as I was the only person in my family that believed in God my father said "I could get my mob to do the funerals". So without a second thought I asked my pastor to do the services and I agreed it should be done as a outreach! so the pastor got up and blasted family and friends about sin and stated that my mother was a sinner because she never spoke in tongues and would be going to hell and everyone else there would end up the same way if we didn't do the steps he was giving us, needless to say no souls got saved that day.

But I still love and care about many people that are with the Revival Centres and I had pastors that were like a father to me who have laughed and cried with me at different times for the things I was going through and I know they did love me. Now I have not seen or heard from many of these people in 10 or more years but I pray for them often as I have not forgotten them. I know there are many sincere people in the R.C.A. who are deceived or manipulated to the point where only God can reach them and I have seen lives that still have not bounced back from the hurt and confusion as a result of being poorly treated by some pastors and members, some were kicked out, some finally left the fellowship and I even know of one person who suicided because he believed he would not go to heaven because as a new convert with a drug and the associated problems he was given a time limit to have his act cleaned up about (1 or 3 mths I'm not sure now as it was so many years ago) and he never managed it and just gave up believing he was doomed anyway. No one ever asked that pastor "why did you speak to that boy (18-25 years) like that" all that was said was "he was to far into sin and now he's suicided."

I don't even think the boy's family knew he was talking to a pastor - he lived away from home.

Let me say some years later that same pastor got a revelation from God about all the untruths he had been miss guildedly teaching and believing for years and he repented and confessed his sins and he was also kicked out. This was a man who loved his flock and afterwards he set himself to the task of helping as many people break free from the deception and the lies as he could. At the same time he himself was struggling to come to terms with the damage that he knew he had caused to so many people.

I know he felt he had the blood and lives of so many saints on his hands. I just praised God that years before when I didn't listen to this pastor because I felt unconvinced about the things he said and eventually I was also kicked out (not by him) but I was so happy that this pastor didn't have to have me on his mind as well, because I had followed my own walk with the Lord and not his. The Lord gave me a mighty compassion for this man and I was praying for him then and even now still.

I'm sorry I've being raving on a bit, now I'm back with it ... A really great book to help people to realise and Identify early when someone is holding them in an un-Godly and controlling power is:

Breaking Controlling Powers, By Roberts Liardon 1989. Published by Embassy Publishing PO Box 3500, Laguna Hills California 92654

Please fell free to drop me a line any time you like, God Bless you and keep up the good work.