What ever happened to The Message?

June 25, 2015

By: Donald L. Sandusky

One day in early 1973, I awoke on the couch in a friends home in Denver Colorado. My unconventional
salvation experience a few weeks earlier, while on the strongest LSD I had ever taken, was Shock and
Awe, but I was born again. Since I had no association with other Christians, I followed my normal
morning routine, reaching to the coffee table to grab the zig zag paper and roll a joint. I had developed a
theory years earlier that all mankind was neurotic and the only cure was to rely on the medicinal
properties of marijuana on a continual basis. In other words to Stay Stoned.
My friends, Nathan and Cathy Lafitte, lived upstairs in the house and when I told Nathan of my salvation
experience, he took me aside and said, I need to tell you about someone. He went upstairs and came
back with an old Bible and a well-worn first addition of a book titled, Precious Gem in the Tabernacle.
He proceeded to tell me about the author who had studied the Bible her whole her life while praying in
a closet. Being raised a Southern Baptist, I had never heard of anyone praying in a closet! In fact, I had
never heard anyone being Born Again, but I knew it had happened to me.
After this conversation, Nathan, who had been on his own long vacation from the Faith, called home to
Texas for some booklets by the same Author to give this homeless Baptist Boy - still reeling from a
confrontation with God while high on LSD.
That morning at my feet on the edge of the couch was a small red book that I had started the night
before titled God and the Blood. As my eye fell on the book, the same God that had appeared to me and
saved my soul, spoke clearly out of this book. Not audible words, but a far deeper, more real pure
transmission of thought. This is the same means of communication that anyone traveling out of the
body uses to speak with other disembodied humans, angels or devils; but this was God transmitting
Pure Divine Thought instantly from His Mind to my mind and soul. One sentence, yet an encyclopedia of
thought, in one second or a thousand years. The best way I can distill this into English is:
Through My servant, I make available the Greatest Revelation of Myself that I offer. Then almost
pleading with the deep love of a Father, God said Please come!
I was working as a construction laborer near Denver next to Columbine High School, where the tragic
massacre would occur 26 years later. Nathan gave me the booklets from Texas, but I needed more. By
this time I was living in a small slum apartment on Denvers Capitol Hill. I didnt have money for books,
but I did have a coin collection that I had kept since a boy. I sold the collection and ordered all of the
books in print by Rev. Hicks at that time. With Bible in hand I immersed myself in them.
This old story may be stranger than what most people have experienced that had heard of this Little
Lady in Jeffersonville. Rev. Hicks taught not only salvation by Grace, but how the Bible teaches practical
steps to grow in grace after we are saved by grace. Thousands have their own testimonies of how they
came in contact with what we call the Message. Many left other countries, other states, families,
positions, houses and lands to move to Jeffersonville. As the Apostle Paul was taught at the feet of
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Gamaliel, thousands in those days made pilgrimages or moved lock stock and barrel to study at the feet
of this Master Teacher.
In my early days in Christ Gospel Church the Message unfolded piece by piece like something I had
known long ago but had forgotten. In a few years, I was teaching and preaching in Jeffersonville, in other
CGCs in the US and as I was traveling for business, around the world. When I planned international trips
weeks, in duration, I scheduled meetings in China, Japan, India, New Zealand, and England etc. to preach
and teach under the Christ Gospel Banner.
When I was a young, an old man told to me, Son, there are some things in this life that you will only
understand with age. Now with age, medication, declining strength, cataracts, aches and pains, I am
understanding a few of these secrets reserved for the aged. I see how easy it has been to allow things
that were so exciting and so real early in ones life to fade in the rear view mirror, especially when your
future is certain to be shorter in duration than your past.
About ten years ago, I had an experience that forced me to stir up my remembrance of the Core
Doctrines of the Crucified Way. Without apology, I also call this the Core Doctrines of the written Word
of God. The first website appeared attacking the teachings of Rev. B.R. Hicks, written by a man who
claimed to be a Christian Theologian. His website was quite involved and it was obvious that he was
knowledgeable about theology; but it was also obvious that he did not understand what Rev. Hicks
really taught, and in his confusion, he was condemning things he only assumed she taught.
First, I wrote an email asking a question and he responded. I wanted to convince him that he was
corresponding with a sincere Christian and a brother in Christ, who believed in the essentials of the Faith
as he did. These essentials include: the Divinity of Jesus, His virgin birth, the Trinity of the Godhead, the
Second Coming of Jesus and the Divine inspiration of the Word of God, the Holy Bible. After several
emails, when I was certain that he considered me a Christian and a Brother in Christ, I confessed that I
was an ordained minister and a member of the Board of Directors of CGCI.
He responded with excitement, like he had just unearthed the Motherlode! His secret goal was to
become a world renowned cult hunter and he was getting ready to carve the first big notch on his six
shooter. He suggested that we continue our email dialog, with a challenge. He said that since I was a
Board member and a minister, if he convinced me of errors in Rev. Hicks teachings, I would be obligated
to work within CGC to expose and correct the false doctrine.
I accepted his challenge on one condition. I said that I would only admit that he had uncovered an error
if he could prove it clearly in the words of the Bible. I said that if Rev. Hicks teachings conflict with living,
or long dead theologians, this would only prove that human beings disagreed with each other. The only
point of reference had to be the Bible and the Bible alone.
He agreed, reluctantly and then we started reviewing one point of doctrine after the other. He had
purchased and read several of Rev. Hicks more important books; but it amazed me that since he had
such a lust to expose what he believed to be a heresy believing fundamental cult, he could read
something in plain English and conclude that it said something it in no way said. I responded several
times, Brother where did you get that? He would tell me book and chapter and I would explain that
the book simply did not say what he thought it said. At times I had to say even children in CGC can tell
you that Rev Hicks has never taught that! So the first task, which sometimes took many emails back
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and forth, was to come to an agreement as to what Rev. Hicks actually taught regarding a specific
doctrinal issue. Then we argued the point in detail.
This interchange extended about nine months with emails flying back and forth every few days. We
drilled down on each point of doctrine and, based on the Bible, he failed to prove even one error! After
trying and failing many times, he started getting angry at me and I was getting angry at him. Finally he
said arrogantly, It has been reported to me that Sister Hicks has the seats in her church wired, so when
she pushes a button from the pulpit, all the seats vibrate and whole congregation jumps and shouts at
the same time to prove that what she just said was the will of God.
That pushed me over the edge. I wrote back and said, Brother we have been corresponding for months,
honestly and sincerely, about real points of doctrine and you have not proved that anything my pastor
teaches is in conflict with the Bible in English or the original language. Now, do you really expect a
response to this stupid accusation? That was the end of our long dialog.
A couple of years later I checked and his website was still online. So I wrote him again and said,
Brother, it has been two years since you attempted to convince me that the teachings of Rev. B.R. Hicks
were heretical and, with the Bible our judge, and you failed. Dont you think it is time to remove your
website from the Internet?
He wrote back explaining that he had moved to Sweden to join a liberal theological seminary and he no
longer considered himself a Fundamental Christian. He didnt care any longer about exposing the false
doctrine of fringe Fundamental Christian groups. He agreed to remove his website, but, unfortunately
others copied some of the content before it was taken down and used his material on their own
websites to make it look like they are more knowledgeable about Theology than they really are. So his
nonsense lives on.
This whole experience was very beneficial to me personally. By that time it had been about 32 years
since God spoke to me from God and the Blood at the end of the couch. I had spent much of those years
traveling around the world doing business in very stressful situations. Then, a few years before this
email dialog began, I had started my own business with each day more challenging than the next. My
intense focus on the things of the world, had formed a wall between me and the Message I found so
profound in my 20s and early 30s.
This challenge forced me to study seriously, not only the Great Legacy in print Rev. Hicks has left in this
world, but also Evangelical Christian Theology. In order to defend the Message I had to understand the
accepted Doctrine of Evangelical Christianity: what is considered to be within the Pale of Orthodoxy and
what is without it?
Evangelical Theologians refer to Essentials of the Faith and the Non-Essentials. To find fellowship with
others, we must agree on Essentials, but we can still agree to disagree on non-essentials. I learned in the
process of this interchange that all of the basic Doctrines taught by my Pastor and Master Teacher are
clearly within the Pale of Orthodoxy. If any sincere Christian takes the time to learn what we really
believe and teach in CGC, they will conclude that we agree on the Essentials of the Faith and they will
have no reason not to have fellowship with us in the Body of Christ.
The problem is that many looking at CGC from the outside are themselves unlearned and they dont
understand what the Essentials of the Faith are. They see only the demonstrative worship, the Holiness
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Standard, Jesus Name Baptism, the Witness of the Holy Ghost etc. In their ignorance and laziness they
attempt to cast us out of the Body of Christ, and in doing so they trample underfoot the shed Blood of
Jesus that saved our souls.
Also, I learned was that there are non-essential beliefs and doctrines that many in the Christian World
hold to that are dead wrong and unscriptural. For example: many leading Theologians teach that the
body, soul and spirit of man was created at one time together and that there is no pre-carnate existence
of the spirit and soul. Yet, several scriptures prove clearly that we existed before coming down into
these robes of flesh.
Some Evangelicals are more tolerant than others. Some would say that I am not a Christian because I
believe the Universe is Billions of years old. Others will attempt to cast me out of the Body of Christ
because I contend that my soul is ancient, existing at least 13.7 Billion years, before the Big Bang. Other
more reasonable Christians would simply say that I have lost my mind on that point but, since we agree
in Essentials, they are forced to allow me to keep my salvation.
After responding to this challenge, I concluded afresh and anew that the teachings of the Master
Teacher form the basis for Extreme Hard Core Christianity, firmly rooted in the Essentials of the Faith.
Today, as we near the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, I see brothers and sisters, some whom I have
known for 40 years departing like there was nothing special in these teachings. I continue to ask myself,
What ever happened to the Message? I remember their testimonies of how they heard of the
Message of Growing up in God. How they left everything to move to Jeffersonville. How they stood
against the persecution of family, friends and employers. How they believed deeply and sincerely as I did
that the teachings of this Little Lady in Jeffersonville, were the real end time exposition and revelation of
the written Word of God. They as I, had found the open door through which we could seek and find the
deepest revelation of Himself God offers. But now as many depart for a new Church, former Church, no
Church or to embrace the end time heresies of the rapidly spreading Hyper-Grace Movement, I marvel
how The Message can be left on the side of the road like abandoned furniture?
Honestly, I have the answer to my own question.
Without this challenge ten years ago..there go I.