The Strait and Narrow

First what is Theocratic government? Theocracy is a form of government in which God is recognized as the supreme civil ruler. For believers, theocracy is a form of government in which divine power governs an earthly human state, either in a personal or via religious institutional (church) replacing or dominating civil government.

I know this part will be a bit old, and this will be of my own opinion. In 2006, at the Church of God of Prophecy bi-annual General Assembly, General Overseer, Bishop Fred Fisher retired from this leadership role and a new General Overseer was appointed in his place, Bishop Randy Howard. After a week long battle between members at the General Assembly the church changed its long-standing interpretation of acceptable reasons for divorce and remarriage, with ninety-seven standing against the issue. Those standing against the issue, though small in number, stood because they felt the Holy Ghost had not consented and the Church was divided on the issue. The Church of God of Prophecy has always worked from theocratic government, with the Holy Ghost manifesting himself and all present members in complete agreement. Therefore, even if just one person should disagree with changing church doctrine, prayer should take place until God delivers what should be done, with the Holy Ghost giving consent in the issue. The divorce and remarriage issue had been tabled the entire week because an agreement could not be reached. It was supposed to have been dropped from the proxy until the next General Assembly, but Bishop Fisher took it upon himself to open it back up on the last day of the event, when originally no business was to be held. Many attendees had left believing that the issue was to be regarded at a later time. These ninety-seven were overruled, by the overwhelming majority of voting members. Bishop Fisher himself overruled those standing against it.

It may seem it were urgent to past this new change in the divorce and remarriage doctrine in this assembly by the way the “theocratic government” was not put into practice and when many attendees understood that it would be tabled until the next assembly and left the assembly.  Even by the w ay the General Overseer reopened the vote after been tabled all week. That would seem as been urgent and you may ask why? The Proxy System would come to my mind. It would give a broader participation from all around the world to give their vote on any doctrine change. It would give a better prospective of how the COGOP around the world feels about this change. Some feel that if we used the proxy system the outcome would been different. That maybe the reason it was urgent to past the D&R doctrine in that assembly. The proxy system will be used in the 2008 assembly.

This is how it will work:
All Representatives that carry a local church proxy, properly certified, meeting the deadlines, etc., will be registered on Monday of the Assembly by an Independent agency … a company hired to manage the proxy process. They are not affiliated with COGOP and have no stake in the outcome, as they are merely professionals hired to manage the logistics and assure the integrity of the process.
The proxy-carrying representative will be issued a voting card that is bar coded. Lose it? Lose the vote.
There will be x number of seats on the floor of the Sommet Center during the business sessions designated for those carrying the proxies, and ONLY them.
When the time comes for expressing the proxy on an issue, there will be about 15 strategically placed electronic stations at which the proxy holders will be able to use the bar-coded credential to register “yes/no” “for/against” or whatever the two options might be … “A/B.”
The independent agency will tally the results (pretty much immediately) and report them to the person presiding.

The proxy carrying representative would be elected by their local church and the church would have their own business meeting to come to a decision about the proxy in question. This decision is what the representative would vote in the assembly proxy. Then the assembly can tally the proxies to make their decision whether are not to pass the issues in question.  I question the lack of Theocratic government used in these debates and the way that the assembly presbytery reopened this vote even when a good amount of the attendees had left the assembly shows who was operating the church at that time.