Introduction
to an Underground Church
Persecuted
in the Pre-Reformation Past
Alive
Today, A Growing Community
A
United Community
Ministries
Publications
Membership
House
Church Movement
Government
and Organization
Finances
Doctrinal
Unity
Historic
Faith
Worship
Ordinances
Scripture
Witnessing
The
Reality of Evil in the World
Religious
Liberty
Cathars
and Civil Government
What
Others Say about the Cathars (good and bad)
In
Conclusion
Additional Reading
Introduction
to an Underground Church
Good Christians
have
existed in North America since approximately 1749, generally in
scattered, loosely linked communities. It has been our tradition to
worship in private homes. We do not build churches. Instead, we seek to
live simply, work quietly,
professing in our daily life our distinct expression of the radical
Good
News of GOD.
Traditionally we have been a 'Church of Silence'. In 1951 a compromise
was achieved wherein the community agreed to alternating ten year
periods when it would renew its public witness and expression. The last
period of silence started in late 1997. The 2007-2008 period will see
greater activity by the AGC in selected areas until 2017 when we return
to silence and contemplation.
We call ourselves
a 'New
Testament Church'. From a historical point of view we can lay a better
claim
than most if the "we were first so there" was our goal. In practice,
although
not always in name, our historical ancestors have witnessed since the
4th
century despite severe and cruel persecution.
The most common
reaction amongst people we meet (or the many more who have come to us
from the old and current web site) has been a surprised "I thought you
guys were all dead!" Understandable, but with the restoration of some
unity within our fellowship we are anything but dead! As a result, we
can in good conscience continue our refrain seeks to fulfill the Great
Commission calling for revival and renewal
in the universal Christian Church. GOD calls humankind to change the
face
of the earth before He comes - Cathars say to the Christian people -
get
with the program and get the job done.
You may find us to
be both different and familiar at the same time. Our language may be
offensive to some. We try to be straight forward and up front. No one
can every accuse us of trying to con our way into your life with sickly
sweet statements,
waiting for the chance to turn you into some mindless money machine
spouting
memorized gibberish. A witless witness serves neither GOD nor the
church.
Persecuted
in
the Pre-Reformation
Past
Many
historians and
scholars of Church history regard the good Christians as the
catalytic forerunner of the
Protestant
Reformation. The "Good Men" as they were called in days before
political
correctness, are the spiritual descendants of those commonly referred
to
as 'Cathars', of whom historians have traced back to the days of the
early
church. However, we mark
the distinctive nature of our fellowship from the tenth and eleventh
centuries.
Branded as
"heretics" by the established church of the day (Roman Catholic) for
our uncompromising rejection of the Church-State union with the Roman
Empire, one of the most decisive moments in the history of the
Christian Church developed. For the first time opinions different from
those held by the Bishop of Rome could be declared acts of heresy or
schism, and thereby become punishable by state law, enforcement by
government police. The 'secular arm' of government stood at the
disposal of whoever could prove themselves 'orthodox' - or could bring
the greatest degree of pressure in Rome, center of the Imperial
government.
By questioning and
rejecting the beliefs held by the Church of Rome, especially those that
were related to building a strong, male dominated and exclusive
leadership not open to ordinary Christians, this posed a serious threat
to the now state supported church hierarchy.
Unfortunately,
this Established
church had the power to enforce its doctrine by the force of law and
state
violence. Good Christians have are pacifists. For this
reason,
and their total rejection of changes of Apostolic practice, the Good
Men
were considered expendable and were excluded from
participation on the full life of the "official" church. They were
removed from their
positions and forced, under penalty of death or long imprisonment from
conducting
their activities or worship in the open. Many fled to other parts of
Europe
or worshipped as carefully as they could in the privacy of their homes.
Good Christians
spread the Word of GOD and the Redeeming Message of Christ throughout
Eastern and Western Europe, especially in France, the Balkans, Italy
and Germany, providing the strongest spiritual opposition to the Roman
Catholic Church. In Western and Southern Europe the faith of the good
Christians
became the predominant spiritual expression. However, the Roman
Catholic Church organized the 'Inquisition
' which
was originally designed for
the
sole and only purpose of of eliminating by any means necessary the
perfecti and all good Christian believers.
Three centuries
and an
untold number of burnt bodies, destroyed towns and villages later the
Inquisition nearly succeeded. After such an excellent success, the
Roman
Church decided
to use the Inquisition on other enemies, both political and religious;
Waldensians,
Jews, Gypsies, Hutterites, Mennonites, Calvinists all were to
experience
devastating human losses at the hands of this olden times killing
machine.
(We
should note here that the Roman Catholic Church denies that it ever
actually killed anyone during the Inquisition. It asserts instead that
it was the civil
governments that did the actual killing as deadly violence would
be
"unChristian". They neglect to mention that Roman Catholicism was the
State
religion and that 'heresy' was a fate punishable by death. All the
Inquisitors
had to do then was turn the accused over to "the secular arm for
punishment"
and by an extraordinary coincidence they were executed. The same was
true
when Roman Catholic armies approached a Cathar town. Led by Catholic
Bishops,
they did not have the authority to order massacres. They only had the
spiritual authority to order the commanding officer to kill heretics.
This they would argue, is not quite the same thing. Hence came the
command, "Kill them all."
to expand/collapse content
For the 13 years our site
has been active, we have been
persistently hacked, and that we have gone from a high of some 4,000
pages to a present 422. We are reviewing the original 4,000 plus 2,000
more, some dating back to the 1930's, within the framework of the
mandate from the Annual General Meeting (2006) and pray this work will
be completed by the Spring of 2009. For a past views see 
.
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