Obeying Leaders

December 2000
Written by a former member of over 17 years

Obeying leaders

Obeying leaders is synonymous with obeying God Himself. Therefore, they must repent, yield, and render themselves a living sacrifice promptly! There is a real lack of rest and joyful trust that should characterize a graceful life. Instead, a very serious "pursuit of holiness" characterizes the members' lives. Failure to live up to the standard causes the member to redouble his efforts. If the reader ever wondered what life would be like in Galatia, during the time of the Judaizers, he need only visit the Geftakys group.

George clearly teaches one-naturism. He teaches that the reason we still sin, after the old man has been crucified, (Romans 6) is due to the "conditioning of the old man, or self". George describes this conditioning in his pamphlet, "Once for all Reality, an exposition of Romans 6" as being like a snake with its head cut off. The body still wiggles like a snake, even though it is dead. But the believer's body will apparently keep wiggling for a lifetime. Self is our mortal enemy that must constantly be put to death; if not dealt with it will keep us from the inheritance. At the same time, the only nature the believer has is Christ's, who cannot sin! The believer sins, but the believer's nature is sinless. It is far beyond the scope of this paper to comment further about these matters but suffice it to say that anyone who carefully considers George's teaching in this area will run up against some real inconsistency and flawed logic. Grace is distorted; freedom and rest are non-existent, and a slight yet ever present sense of fear reigns in the member's mind. Surely, they think, God is just waiting to shut us out of the kingdom, just like the children of Israel in the wilderness wandering. We must be ever so careful to not fall into the same unbelief that kept them out of the Promised Land. Attitude and performance becomes the gauge of spirituality, not resting by faith in the Grace of God. I have actually heard members praise God for being "The rock that is higher than self." The very idea of re-naming God in this way shows how pervasive this aspect of George's teaching is.

George's theology is definitely Galatianism, and legalistic. As can be expected, this breeds authoritarian leadership with a clear distinction between the leaders and the sheep. Interestingly, George claims that he is just "a brother in Christ." Everyone else is called by his or her first name, but George is always addressed as Brother George. To not call him so will result in correction, usually in an indirect way from the pulpit, but sometimes in a very forceful way in front of others. Many have made the mistake of calling him George and then being humiliated in front of their brethren. In this way he is definitely not just a brother among brothers, but sees himself as worthy of greater honor. The leaders are identified by name after every meeting. In many "mainstream" churches, a visitor may take months to find out who the elders are, because they don't make a point of trumpeting their office. In the Geftakys system, a person will clearly know, after one meeting, who the leaders are. When prayer is offered for another assembly in the ministry, the main emphasis of the prayer is always for the leaders, who are mentioned by name. Leadership is the goal for most of the male members.

Members are to submit to the leaders, no matter what. If the leaders are wrong, the member should still obey and let God deal with the situation. This is perhaps the biggest source of abuse in the movement. Gross sin can be present in the leadership for years, but no one can address it or even speak of it without disobeying the scripture, as taught by George. Criticizing the leadership is definitely sin; saying "no" is tantamount to rebellion, the sin of witchcraft. This creates a triple standard, with the average member at the bottom, the leadership on the second rung, and George at the top. An average member could never get by with rebuking a leader, a leader could never rebuke George, but George is free to rebuke everyone, which he does, while leaders can only rebuke average members. Power is exercised over others in the same chain of command.