Our Dear Friends, After many prayers and hours of searching the scriptures for the answers to our questions, we have decided that we can no longer continue to attend meetings. We want to assure you that we are in no way offended by anything you have said or done, and we will always continue to think of you as our friends. Therefore, we believe it is necessary that we give you some explanation for our departure from what we have believed to be ‘The Truth’ for so many years.
Recently it has become very clear to us that since Jesus is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life” and if we have seen Jesus, we have seen God, and since “God is love,” then God’s Way and Truth is His unconditional love within us—not some tangible path with certain rules and regulations that we must follow with great fear and trembling lest at any moment we be cast into hell for some small infraction, and that the “Fear of God is the beginning of wisdom,” a reverent respect for all that He has done for us in giving the world His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life (unconditional love without respect of persons.)
However, we have also been made aware that much of what is portrayed as love amongst the friends and workers is indeed very conditional. Nevertheless, we have been more than willing to excuse this behavior because we all have human faults and desires, and we all make mistakes that we often regret later, but what we cannot forgive is the fact that what we have loved so much as “The Truth,” is actually based on an “Untruth!”
Ever since I was 9 years old, I have never doubted that “The Truth ” was God’s one and only way because I was assured time and again that this ministry, which was supposedly God’s only true ministry, was established in Jesus’ day when He first sent out His apostles. The workers said it was true! The friends said it was true! My own mother said it was true! I assured Jesse that it was true, and we taught our children it was true! We believed it with all of our heart. Even during the years I was ‘outside’ this fellowship, I never doubted for one moment that l was going to hell because l was ‘outside’ of God’s true way, a tangible path I must follow in order to reach Heaven.
I am sure you can imagine our shock when we discovered that this way was established only 100 years ago by William Irvine — that this way’s origin had been covered up by men and women who profess to serve a ‘God who cannot lie.’ We could not comprehend why we had never questioned why “The truth” had not come to America in the 1600s when all those who desired religious freedom were fleeing from Europe and England.
Again, we wish to reassure you that we harbor no hard feelings toward any person in particular. We only pity those who have perpetuated this lie and also those who continue to be deceived as we were. We are thankful, however, that we fully understand that God’s truth has never died out and that there have always been men, women, and children who have kept His law written in their hearts and expressed it by extending His unconditional love to others in all that they do and say. With God’s help, we will continue in His love and mercy.
Sincerely,
Jesse and Ilene Madrigal
Braman, OK 74632
March 27, 1997