Dear Friends/Family,
We feel we have to write to you as some of you have expressed your concern for us and our family.
We want to let you know we no longer choose to be a part of the “truth.” We know this will stir up a lot of feelings in some of you, but please let us say it is not because we have been offended by anyone that we have come to this decision. The choice we have made for our family did not happen overnight. We have been deliberating and praying for over 2 years.
We now know God’s purpose over these last trying years have brought us to this point, and we truly rejoice in the freedom we now have to serve the Lord, who we have come to know a lot closer since we have learned the true meaning of what grace and mercy really are.
Over the past few months, we have come to see that God is far greater than we ever imagined. We realized we were trying to limit Him in how, where, when and who He moved through and to. We have come to realize clearly we cannot do this in the “truth.” His ways are mysterious and He works in ways we wouldn’t always agree with. God’s grace is not based on man’s ideas of fairness.
We continue to give God first place in our lives, home, and choices, we have not lost our faith in God (it’s only our faith in the truth that has been lost) – always looking to his dear son Jesus our saviour. We are saddened to hear that some do not accept this and have made it known that we have “lost out”/taken our own way etc – We only have one life and one chance to get to know Jesus, God and his way and truth for others to judge us otherwise has concerned us.
A main concern is the origins of “the truth” which we will not go into detail now.
Another of our concerns was that the “truth” often implies that it is the only way to reach heaven and spend eternity with God. We could find no scripture where salvation was limited to ONE particular method or way by Jesus. John 14:6, “I am the Way the Truth and the Life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” According to this verse, the ONE way is Jesus Himself–not a particular method of fellowship; and the “truth” is a person (Jesus), not a way, or the “truth”. Jesus provided the ONLY way men could ever have eternal life, by dying on the cross, and rising again–that is the “way” the Bible speaks of. See also I Tim 2:5.
We have never found the Bible indicates salvation is limited just to those who profess through a particular ministry and meet in homes for worship; but rather that salvation is the result of submitting to a personal relationship with Jesus, who opened and provided the Way by his death.
We believe Jesus Christ is the Way to heaven. The Way to heaven is through belief and trust in Jesus Christ; in what He did for us in living a sinless life and on the cross an atoning sacrifice. It isn’t enough to just say we believe, but we must repent of our sins and have a living relationship with Him through the Holy Spirit. It isn’t a method or a system or a group of people who meet in a particular way. Everyone who believes in Jesus as our Saviour is our brother in Christ and we are to love them.
We do not imply in any way that those in the truth are lost and in the wrong way. What we are saying is that we believe many others outside of this way (in other ways) are also saved.
We know the truth and its teachings/beliefs/rules etc have come between us and God, and in our experience, the “truth” has taken away our peace. We respect that the “truth” and its ways do work for some people and they can get peace from it, it’s just that we couldn’t and it would be hypocritical to continue.
We are more than happy to enlarge on the various reasons we left this way and happy to explain in more detail to any who need to know. We all need to question our fellowship with God. We would of missed out so much in the scriptures if the disciples and people never questioned anything.
With love in him,
Mike, Heidi and Family
Reply from Peter Hingeley
6th February 2013
Dear Mike and Heidi,
I have just returned from my trip abroad and I feel that I should drop you a line. I hope this finds you and the children all keeping well.
I have had a chance to read the letter that you sent to some of our friends. Naturally, we are very sorry to read of your decision to leave the meetings. Obviously, you have had a lot of questions on your minds and I feel sorry that you didn’t ask us to call to see you and discuss them. It would have been better to do this rather than to wait until I was on the other side of the world and then circulate the letters around the church.
I have realised ever since coming to Lincs. that you were having problems and I think we can honestly say that we have tried to do as much as we can to help you. One of the main reasons for having a mission in Billinghay was to try to give you more help.
The situation seems worse than I first thought because you say in your letter that God “works in ways that we wouldn’t always agree with.” So, if you don’t always agree with what God does where does that leave you? Is God going to change His ways because you don’t agree with Him? I think not!
You say in your letter “We have never found the Bible indicates salvation is limited to just those who profess through a particular ministry or meet in homes for worship”. I suggest you read Luke 10 v 16, Romans 16 v 5 and Hebrews 10 v 25.
I have often heard it said, “you think you are the only way that is right but there are saved people in other ways.” People who say this usually fail to name the “other ways” that they are referring to. What we say is that Jesus is the only way that is right and that we are sincerely trying to follow Him. This means more than glibly saying ‘I’m following Jesus.”
Our Lord established a Ministry to preach the Gospel and commanded them to leave all behind and to go out preaching the Gospel by faith. Do you know any other church, group or organisation that does this because if you do please let me know?
All the churches I know about usually have a paid ministry supported by a salary, tithe or collection and often all three. Now it is open for anybody to obey our Lord’s commandments and go out by faith; but if they choose not to do this is God obliged to support them? What employer would employ somebody who didn’t obey his orders? God has nothing to do with these people and, spiritually speaking, they are on their own. The Bible terms them “hirelings” (John 10 v 12). To find something to say to their congregations they have to turn to other sources and some, such as the clergyman who lives near you, get their sermons off the Internet from www.sermonaudio.com.
These people have founded many churches and sects all saying they are going to Heaven but all believing different things. The vast majority of these are affiliated to the World Council of Churches, an umbrella organisation that represents churches worldwide. In the 1970 the WCC was found to be funding terrorist organisations, particularly in Africa. Money was being used to buy guns to commit murder. It was a big scandal and was in all the national papers. I don’t think there is any reason to feel that things are different today. The WCC hasn’t changed that much. Are these the sort of people that you would wish to be associated with?
The largest church in this country is probably the Church of England which has branches in many parts of the world. A month ago the branch in the USA (The Episcopal Church of America) announced that they would be conducting gay weddings in their churches. What starts in America soon reaches England and already a considerable number of C of E clergy in this country seem to want to go the same way. From the Church of England, it will spread to other denominations and many of their clergy seem willing to follow the trend. The Quakers and Unitarians taking the lead. The picture you get of these false religions is summed up in Revelation 18 v 2 “the cage of every unclean and hateful bird.” Are these the sort of people you would want to be associated with or to bring your children into contact with? Think about it!
Some may say “there are still people in these ways who are right.” I think if were any who are wanting to be right with God they would be anxious to get out as soon as possible before being swallowed up in the destruction that is coming (2 Cor. 6 v 17).
I’m sorry that mixing with these other religions has robbed you of your faith in Christ and vision of what is right in the sight of God. We hope you will feel like coming to the Gospel Meetings and allow God to speak to you and to do a work of restoration.
Sincerely,
Peter [Hingeley]
Mike & Heidi to Peter
(Probably written in January 2013)
Dear Peter,
We feel that we have to reply to your letter mainly due to the fact that it is full of incorrect accusations and statements!!
Firstly let us make it perfectly clear that we are not, nor ever have been or ever will be part of the religion that you mention in your letter and did not even know that the WCC existed. We have not joined up to any other faith or religion and this is not the reason we left “the truth.” We do not know where you got this assumption from, but we are all aware of the gossip culture in “the truth” – maybe it came from this?
You also state in your letter that you knew we were struggling ever since you came into the county, if this was so how does a brief visit every 6 months constitute (we quote) “that we have tried to do as much as we can to help you”!!
You also state that we said God works in ways we do not agree with. You have misread this statement, God does work in ways we do not agree with or in mysterious ways, if God always did what we agreed with there would be no need to struggle and no need for faith. God is a higher person. His ways are not our ways, God can only do what is right, it is impossible for God to do wrong. But we as humans sin and can do wrong, we seek God to try and become righteous. This is what we were trying to state when stating that God does not always work in ways we would like Him to.
In your letter, you quoted certain verses, some of which point to us meeting in homes if you look through the New Testament there are a majority of references to God’s people coming together in temples and synagogues in fact if you read Acts 2 v46 it states in the same verse that they met in the temple courts and in homes. The Bible does not state you need to meet in homes, in fact, quite the opposite (we are to worship in Spirit & in Truth – not taken up with where/building).
Another of the reasons for us leaving the truth was the hypocrisy that there is in it. The majority of friends are one thing in the meetings and another out of them, they hide certain items and actions from the workers and are only fooling themselves – not God. This has been brought about mainly from the workers being so taken up with how people look and what they have, rather than being concerned about what is in their hearts or about their spiritual wellbeing.
It is also interesting about you stating the problems in the religious churches (Judgement is for the Judgement Day). Another of the reasons why we left “the truth” was because of the problems and consequently the deceit in it. In America, workers have been arrested and imprisoned for various reasons which we do not need to go into. Mainly for child/sexual abuse which with regards to you stating that we need to be careful what we bring our children into!! This was one of the reasons for us leaving “the truth” we do not want our children involved in this secretive sect any longer.
When we state the word secretive, we mean all the things that are constantly hidden away and hushed up from the friends. For example, the way “the truth” started and by whom it was started. You are probably aware that the man who invented this religion, he himself was excommunicated by the workers just 10 years or so later because they did not agree with his preaching. Do you really believe in a way that wanted nothing to do with and was embarrassed by its founder?? The “truth” was simply a spin-off from the Faith Mission which still exists today.
When workers leave the work and a huge percentage of them have, the true reason is often hidden. We personally know of examples were this has happened. Also “the truth” itself is currently being investigated by the FBI and the IRS, and as you state what starts in America soon comes over here!!
We read our Bibles daily and are influenced by His Holy Spirit. We enjoy fellowship together as a family and also whoever crosses our path on a daily basis – seeking the same outlook in life. This being the life Jesus taught/set before us. The Bible has been opened up to us in a way we did not think was possible – since leaving the truth. We finally have found peace in Him. No man should judge the choice God has opened up to us.
Before finishing we feel we need to make you aware that self-righteousness is one of the biggest sins in God’s sight.
We are so glad we no longer feel we are right but we are now constantly seeking to become right in God’s sight.
Yours sincerely,
Mike, Heidi & Family
26 Dunston Road,
Metheringham,
Lincoln, England UK LN4 3ED
Reply from Peter Hingeley
18th February 2013
Dear Mike and Heidi,
Your recent but undated letter has arrived and I have read it carefully.
There are many things that I could take issue with, particularly the statement that we would only visit you every 6 months when you know as well as we do that we have often tried to visit you and been refused a visit.
You make a lot of allegations and accusations against the way of God. Do you expect me to accept all that junk when you fail to supply one shred of proof that these things are true? When I say proof, don’t be sending me any stuff that you may have downloaded from the internet because that is not proof and it will go straight into the bin.
You say I have misread the statement in your earlier letter to the friends regarding the way in which God works. I don’t think so. I take your statement at face value to mean exactly what it says, that you do not always agree with the ways in which God works. In other words, you feel that God is wrong and you are right. That terminates this correspondence.
Peter [Hingeley]