As I keep updating these pages there new
things I wish to address.
One is that I have indeed called for Randy's
ministry to end. Do I have the authority to make such a call? That depends
on what I do with it. If I were to go to CiM and run up on the platform
without permission, I would be breaking a measure of rule. If I were to
physically turn off his media sources I also would be breaking the measure
of rule. My call is simply and only a call of communication to those who
have ears to hear, and perhaps to those in authority to do something about
it, either personally by making choices of ending Randy's influence over
them and their household, or those in authority who can help others.
This judgment cannot be made by my voice
or judgment alone. Some would claim that certain apostles or other elders
would have that authority. This is not so. No man, whether Paul in scripture
or Clarence Hill, has individual authority to judge another elder. It is
by plurality of witnesses that such authority takes place. Elders did come
together with the testimony of multiple witnesses to make this judgment,
and I discuss on another page:
But many individuals with their combined
testimonies grant this judgment as well. As I shared on the 1st page with
the scriptural mandate on this procedure:
Some folks think I have made these pages
and this call, thinking I am judging Randy's doctrines, sins, or his heart.
I have not, although I do expose some of the bad doctrines, it is not the
source of the judgment. I wrote the following on a forum about this:
Once again perfection, blamelessness,
and perfect doctrine are all different things. Paul gave the mandate for
blameless elders...Yet Paul also said this:
1 Cor 13:12: For now we see through
a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall
I know even as also I am known.
1 Cor 2: LITV 2 For I decided not to know anything
among you except Jesus Christ, and Him having been crucified.
Therefore he knew that doctrine had
nothing to do with blamelessness...the danger is not the doctrine, the
danger is that he destroys marriages, homes, and churches...I will also
take this authority as my brothers keeper, to defend God's sheep everywhere
to warn others of Randy who has refused to repent. The Watchman has the
responsibility to blow the trumpet. If he does not, then those who fall,
will be put on his account...It has nothing to do with me, you, or anyone
else. Randy has forfeited his right to minister. Communicating that fact
does not require any authority...Any authority I seem to have, is simply
my brother's keeper. If I walk down the street and see someone being mugged,
or raped. It is my duty as a person to help my brother. This idea of keeping
your nose out of the affairs of others who are in harms way is a babylonian
concept to keep patriots and moral citizens from rising up to help those
who are being oppressed...Do you think its takes some special authority
to tell a neighborhood that a sex offender lives in their midst? (This
is a hypothetical allegorical example, not an accusation towards anyone)
Joe
Shmoe doesn't have the right, and if he does it, he is breaking his measure
of rule with pride?...no where in scripture does the Bible tell me to look
the other way when a corrupt minister seeks to harm the people of God.
In fact scripture says I am my brother's keeper. Again, I am not talking
about bad doctrines, sin, or judging a man's heart, but the preservation
of marriages, families, and churches...Folks have been praying about this
situation for years, and I say lets continue! But if you see a man who
is a sex offender sneaking into a park to get near the children, are you
going to stay on your knees, when the police have given you a bullhorn,
when the parents of his previous victims have told their stories to you?...Randy
has freewill, he can decide to not be moved by the Holy Spirit moving behind
our prayers. Pray we must, but prayer is not the only thing we do. If Randy
destroyed 1 more church or family and I kept my mouth shut when I had been
given a bullhorn, what do you think God is going to say to me?... I will
have to answer for the lack of blowing the trumpet. And believe me, God
doesn't care about those other voices speaking otherwise on judgment day,
when I was not ignorant.
Lk:12:47: And that servant, which
knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to
his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.48: But he that knew not, and
did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes.
For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to
whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.
-------------------------------------
Randy has indeed broken marriages, families,
and churches, in various states and in other countries, there are multiple
witnesses to these accusations. The accusations have now been deemed a
judgment. The process in doing this has been accomplished through the method
I have shared in the link above, and detailed more below.
It was around 2003 when a stranger contacted
me, finding my webpage looking for information about Randy & CiM. When
I agreed to a phone call they were crying on the phone in tears because
their spouse had left them and moved to CiM. Later Randy married that spouse
to another person in CiM. I have seen the testimonies of several others,
who have experienced such things, including church splits. I had an elder
tell me Randy sought to take away wives from husbands when they began to
question Randy, as trophy wives for submissive sons.
Since Randy has not repented of these actions,
he has not been found blameless, and is therefore not fit to be
an elder.
1 Tim 3:2: A bishop then must be
blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour,
given to hospitality, apt to teach;
Titus 1:6: If any be blameless,
the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of riot or
unruly. :7: For a bishop must be blameless,
as the steward of God; not selfwilled, not soon angry, not given to wine,
no striker, not given to filthy lucre;
I would like to make a clarification of
position here. Awhile back perhaps when I 1st made this page I was resistant
to label CiM a cult because of Randy. Some believe it is a cult because
of Randy. Just as some refuse to uncover Randy's sins and errors at all.
But then as I had more and more contact with ex-CiM members I began to
label CiM as a cult. I am now retracting any such judgment because Randy
has confessed that the accusations here on the internet are true. (I believe
this occurred Sept 24, 06.) This means according to Math 18 we should not
treat Randy as a "publican and heathen". However, he and they have not
repented as they should. For example on Oct 8, 06 Jeff said, "be wronged,
eat it, and shut up" and went on to say if they were wrong it was God ordained.
This clearly is a wrong and is not fruit of repentance.
Math 3:8: Bring forth therefore fruits
meet for repentance
I am not going to delve, at this time,
if this is the wrong kind of sorrow such as Judas had, similarly discussed
in 2 Cor 7. Some may attempt to call CiM a cult because of that. I am going
to think the best however, and err on the side of safety in this judgment
for my own sake. Therefore while they may indeed have confessed their sins
and errors, they have not changed anything, have not brought forth fruits
of repentance, and Randy still remains at blame and has forfeited his scriptural
qualification to be an elder or bishop, this may or may not also be true
about other elders at CiM. I discuss the difference between consequence
and condemnation here:
That is an article on my blog as I comment
on the broadcast from CiM.
So my declaration here is that CiM is not
a cult, but that Randy's ministry is illegitimate. Because he is not qualified
as an elder, and remains unrepentant.
---------------------
What about my relationship with that other
Randy Shankle forum? I used to link to another active forum with several
former CiM members. I was asked to stop posting there because a handful
of people didn't want to see my preaching. Some of these folks had very
immature hostilities toward me. The authority behind that forum didn't
want me to go, but also did not have the patience and strength to deal
with these complainers. Just as about a year ago, another person on the
internet whom I had linked to asked me to stop linking to their site. They
went to the forum bad mouthing alot of folks and threatening to sue. The
authority behind the forum didn't have the patience and strength for that
as well. I understand that and respect that.
I have no grudge against that authority
nor towards that site, but am disappointed with the handful of complainers
that have now closed the door to that forum, as I was the only one linking
to that forum. I have many friends that visit that forum, and have no problem
with them.
I will end this page with my testimony
of Marshall. You can read how I got there, which is even more interesting,
and more of my story, here:
I moved to Texas, to the Church in Marshall,
where God told me to go to Bible school. I found a job and a place to rent
very quickly. The land had opened for me.
I went to school for 2 years there. I enjoyed
it tremendously. During the school year, I was at church about 5 times
a week. I worked full time while schooling as well.
I loved the church very much, but I never
thought it was perfect. But to this day, I believe, it was the most Biblical
church I have ever seen, heard of, or experienced in any way. Now to those
who would warn or accuse me of deserting this church or judging them; remember
this: I love them, and believe that their church was the MOST Biblical
I ever seen, and that God called me there for school, not to live there.
One teaching they have, called "Kisser/Cleaver",
is to teach people to stay there. It teaches to become "planted" in the
land. Many folks have gone there for school and left. Maybe this was their
way to try and keep some, or perhaps they truly believed every student
belonged there to stay. But for whatever reason they had for this teaching,
they caught me with it, and I disobeyed God yet again. I decided to plant
myself there. I had become a man-pleaser yet one more time.
It was sin. God told me in Wisconsin, to
go there for schooling. He told me on the mountain in Colorado, to live
in a certain city in Wisconsin. Despite this sin, I learned alot there
and gained a good reputation and respect from the people and the elders.
Most importantly I learned much of God's ways and the gifts He had given
me, and a beginning of how to use them. I learned a great many of Biblical
Doctrines and theologies, most of which I believe to be very accurate.
Many of which are found on this website. To this day I agree with much
of what they taught.
We must remember, no man nor local church,
can express the fullness of God or His complete work on the Earth. Each
man or church has a calling, each call has its own focus. If a person wears
someone else's glasses, it would be like a church taking another church's
vision or call. The peripheral of each church's vision is blurred, not
in God's vision, He is perfect. In our vision it is not perfect, for the
Bible tells us we see darkly. Therefore, I see things differently than
that church did. God is vast, His ways are sure ways, and indeed God is
limited to His own word, but He is well able to manifest and work in ways
beyond our own scope. What I am saying here is that while 2 individuals
or
2 churches can have similar visions, they are still different. If either
would wear the other's "glasses" or use the other's "scope", they would
not have as clear a picture if they were to wear their own. So saying,
this was my case at that church.
It took God Himself, to get me out of there,
I stayed 4 years. This is how I left...
After 2 years of discipleship and living
in Marshall, probably about my 3rd year there, I decided to pursue the
thought of asking to marry one girl at CiM.
My 1st step was to write a letter to one
of the girls who helped Randy on his ranch. I knew that all their letters
were screened by Randy 1st. I wanted her wisdom as a "daughter" in how
to approach the whole thing.
And just as I am now, I wrote a VERY long
letter so she could get to know me and my background. She agreed to meet
with me.
When we met she asked repeatedly whether
my interest was in her or the other girl who worked with Randy, and I said
no, but I kept the girl's name anonymous.
I don't remember all what was said, but
I think I was just encouraged to go slow, wait on God, and move by His
direction. I was not told to back off or anything like that at that time.
The girl I was interested in, had become
a friend of mine and we had spent time eating together and with groups
of singles and such. No romance, just friendship at that point. Then at
Christmas time I decided to ask her to marry me. I wrote a marriage proposal
poem, had a crystal crown made for her, and asked her to see the Marshall
lights downtown with me. She agreed, it was very cold that night so we
didn't stay out long and I asked her to my place where I wanted to read
the poem to her.
That was the hardest thing I think I ever
did. I should have known it wasn't God by the difficulty of it. It took
me 30 minutes to get up the nerve. I finally read the poem and asked her
to marry me, and handed her the crown I had gotten made for her. She was
very surprised but responded calmly and told me she would get back to me.
Within a week or 2 she told me no.
I let her be for several months and then asked her if she wanted to continue
our friendship, and that was my only motive at the time. Soon after we
started our friendship again she asked me why I asked her to marry her,
and I told her that I had thought it was what God wanted, and that I wanted
to be with her. Somehow we got to talking about future children and both
discovered we wanted a son named "Derek", something happened at that time
and she changed her heart and wanted to pursue a romantic relationship
and marriage with me. So we went to the administration at that time, and
I think Bruce was getting his share of trouble then at the same time and
had stepped down I think. I don't remember or know all the details.
I met with Ray Bade at that time, and he
said that there was no prophetic word from the church or the elders to
have us get married. He asked us to spend some time away from each other
and see what happens.
This was when I started to get angry. I
believe in the Isaac principle and laying something down to let God raise
it, and I had already done that with this relationship. I had dropped the
whole thing and pursued friendship only, and that after several months.
We abided that week, and I went back to
Ray. He told me I was too spiritual for her. As I was a son who had been
to 2 years of discipleship and she had been to none. And she was not active
and I was very active in the church (although she attended regularly).
He continued to encourage us not to see
each other, and soon, we disobeyed. We did not indulge in any illicit behavior,
but saw each other frequently.
Somewhere during this point her mother,
who was a fellow discipleship classmate of mine encouraged us to elope
to another church. While I was getting angry, I still had faith in the
administration that they would come through for us. My position was, if
CiM won't marry us then I won't do it, cause it wasn't God.
This position I took, I think was too difficult
for her, and she began to lose interest. I continued to seek the administration
and the last word was, that the administration knew I was missing God on
something, but when I asked them for help on that matter they could not
advise me anything.
Here's the problem, they were right, I
had missed God! God had told me to come to Marshall for discipleship. I
went 2 years and at this point I had been there almost 4 years. God did
not want me there. I had fallen to Randy's "Kisser/Cleaver" teaching and
had cleaved to CiM despite God's will for me. As for marriage, God I believe
remains neutral on such things, He wants believers to marry believers,
but the match I believe has to do with souls, not spiritual hierarchy.
What the elders sensed was that I was not where I was supposed to be, quite
true! However, they interpreted it to be my choice in a spouse.
This was too difficult for her I think,
at this point I think she struggled with the fact that I was not interested
enough to marry her and go elsewhere to get married, and she began to lose
interest.
What happened to me? I fell in the hole
inbetween. I wanted the administrations approval and wanted to marry her.
These 2 things clashed with each other and wrecked me, because I was not
where God wanted me, which was back in Wisconsin.
Then the administration learned that we
had been seeing each other on and off, and now she was distancing herself
and I was told to stay away by the administration.
Not knowing what to do, I would watch her
from afar but would abide the demand and not communicate with her. Then
she broke the rule and called me. In her half interest I think she tried
1 last time to see if I would pursue marrying her without CiM's approval,
and I did not. I didn't meet her or make any arrangements.
I was now on the outside of the administrations
affection. I was being called a fornicator (I had not done any illicit
activity) and a stalker. Then something incredible things happened...
Several spiritual things happened during
this time. One was this dream:
I dreamed I was on a train. I was a young
teenager (about 14) riding in a train car with other teen boys. They were
from the church. One teen boy was Randy and in the dream he was a couple
years older than me. We had woken up (inside the dream) and each of us
used the bathroom to get ready for the day. For some reason I couldn't
get my hair in any order and I took a long time in the bathroom. When I
was done, everyone had gone for breakfast. The dining car was also a bank.
The food was served buffet style in the kitchen car. So I went to the kitchen
and grabbed a plate and was about to serve myself, when all of a sudden
I began to fall. As I slipped the women in the kitchen began grabbing me
and holding me up, one teen girl grabbed me sexually as this occurred.
While this was happening, I kept trying to fill my plate and kept slipping
on the floor. I just ignored the women trying to help me stay standing
and the girl who was touching me. Finally I made it into the dining room/bank.
There, Randy sat at a table with others and he said to me, "Why were you
touching my wife?" And I said, "I didn't touch her, she touched me." He
refused to believe me, and kept accusing me. I got angry and upturned the
breakfast table on him.
The interpretation of this dream: the hair
represents covering, my covering was not in order. The church government
was my covering instead of Jesus. Therefore, my hair was all messed up.
This caused me to be late in my preparations for God's feeding and preparing
me (late for breakfast). The Kitchen represents the church with the women.
During this time in my life, the church itself kept me uplifted. The reference
to the teen girl being Randy's wife shows that the church is Christ's
wife, not the Randy's. Some in the church sinned against me and used me.
Perhaps since the girl was in relationship with Randy, this shows that
perhaps, those in direct relation with the church government used me, while
the church lifted me up, could this be in reference to the Kisser/Cleaver
teaching to get me to stay? The girl was trying to get me interested in
staying, and did so sinfully. It is in the church where you get your spiritual
food. It was there, where you get support when you fall. And it was there
in my fall, that some in the church misused me. The dining room was a bank,
because the pasture of God is a place of investment. At a bank we give
and receive. In the pasture of God's flock, in the assembly of believers,
we minister to others and others minister to us. God paid a price for us,
and we must invest our lives to Him. What He feeds us is precious to our
spirit. It was in the pasture, in the assembly, where the authority wrongly
accused me. (end of dream)
During this time, the church had a REALLY
big change. Randy had found some older men of God, and he was submitting
to them and his personal ministry to them. Since the church was nondenominational,
he believed he needed personal accountability. This was for him, not the
church, they were not over the church in any way. This is what happened,
it was 1 older man in particular and 2 others that ministered with him.
They did minister to the church, but were not involved in the church governments.
The 3 men came to minister to the congregation. They were to give a word
from God to each person at a service.
This is the word that was given to me from
one of those men:
God sees you and your situation. He is
happy with you. And He says that you are NOT squandering YOUR inheritance.
And He says that He will keep your relationships.
The elders were beginning at this time
to talk about my situation in front of the church and to certain groups
within the church. I was being condemned as being in sin with this girl
or rebellion against them. I was condemned for squandering my inheritance.
This was a common terminology used by the administration amongst those
they deemed as disobedient.
The night that I got the word from God
through that man, I had another dream:
In the dream, a young and short mafia guy
came to me. He started threatening me, saying that the mafia was going
to have me killed, and he might be the one to do it. He was small but I
sensed a fear trying to have power over me, although it did NOT move me,
except in anger. In the dream I knew that this was a demon. I grabbed him
and swung him around and said "I am not afraid of you, they can't kill
me and neither can you, I command you to leave me in Jesus name."
I woke up instantly and sensed the same
exact fear trying to permeate my soul in my room. There was a 3 dimensional
black humanoid next to my bed about 3 feet tall. I knew it was a demon,
and I took the same stance. I said, "I command you to leave in Jesus name."
The demon walked through the wall under my Air Conditioner and left the
apartment. I prayed in tongues and in English for awhile after that.
It was shortly after this, a couple weeks
or so, that the Lord told me that he would or had removed the church's
authority from me. It was only 2 days after that he told me to leave and
go to Wisconsin.
My dad came and got me. Despite how I left,
I loved the elders, and tried to reconcile with them. I loved that church
and still do. They are an awesome group of Godly people. They gave greatest
teachings and were the most Biblical church I had ever seen. Those who
knew me in Wisconsin, friends and family, got angry at the church when
I told them what I went though, but were even more surprised when I defended
the church. Much of the teachings on my website are from them or are inspired
from them. They knew I was missing God, they didn't know what it was. I
was missing God, I wasn't supposed to be there any longer.
-------------------------------------------
Want to share this page with a friend?
Click on the following banner:
Links concerning Randy Shankle or the
Church in Marshall (Click on the link of interest below):
Clarence
Hill & the Oklahoma City Meeting- This
page publishes the Clarence Hill letters that he wrote after the Oklahoma
City meeting. This meeting was as Brother Hill say's "A
Restoration, Reconciliation, and Fellowship meeting"
over Randy and the accusations against him.
Kingdom-Gospel
Blog section on Randy Shankle & CiM - This blog is operated
by me, but is not on the same server or the same website. Here you will
find commentaries on Randy's and CiM's broadcast's and weekly "sermons",
as well as other information about Randy and CiM.
Consequence
vs. Condemnation- Also found
on the blog, and discusses Randy''s consequences of having seriously erred
and sinned, without repentance or receiving correction, verses condemnation.
