The church is not in the same condition it has been in for many years, and its current state is not good. Eighteen years ago, warnings were given that the church was in mortal danger, and now it is even worse, scattered and badly divided, with the division continuing to worsen. The church imploded before it exploded due to spiritual sickness, weakened by years of poor spiritual diet, self-righteousness, and neglectful application. As a body, we lost our first love, fell asleep, and became self-concerned, drifting from God. God is sovereign over His creation and His church; nothing happens without His express will permitting it. He blew the church apart, seeing from afar where it was drifting. Like with Job, He commissioned satan to act, knowing the faithful would remain steadfast. God never gives a test too great, always providing a way of escape, but we must exercise our faith and turn to Him for strength. The purpose of this trial is to drive us back to see God, whom we lost sight of while asleep. When the foundations are destroyed, the whole building comes down. Faith is the foundation, the substance that stands under and supports the entire structure of our beliefs and actions. If the gospel is changed, faith changes, and if it is not the right gospel, everything shifts in the wrong direction. The church's internal problems stemmed from matters of the heart—beliefs, doctrines, policies, and attitudes—that led to its implosion. God warned through His servants that disunity and spiritual deterioration were developing, and these warnings were not hollow; they came to pass as the church continued to decline morally and spiritually even while preaching to the world. It is time for a change, a shift in direction and focus, to fix what caused the scattering of the flock. The shepherd's first responsibility is to regather the sheep and address the root causes of their dispersal, whether it be a wolf, broken fences, or issues within the sheep themselves. God indicates when and where His work will go, determining if we rest or move, and we must adjust to His leading, even when it seems strange or contrary to our expectations. The conditions forced upon us by our environment and what God wants us to accomplish will determine the direction we take, as seen in the patterns of Israel's journey, where adjustments were made due to sin, attacks, and other circumstances. God's scrutiny of the church is intense because much has been given to us in terms of knowledge, resources, and opportunities. To whom much is given, much is required, and His judgment is without respect of persons, though some, like teachers, receive stricter inspection due to their responsibilities. As the church progressed materially, it regressed spiritually, leading to the current state of scattering and the need for repentance and amendment of ways. God has not abandoned us; He is with us, doing what is good for our ultimate blessing as we re-evaluate our convictions and lives.

The scattering of the greater church of God into numerous organizations stems from human rebellion and the apostasy that followed Herbert W. Armstrong's death. God permitted this division as a test to reveal whether His people would cling to His truth or pursue their own ways amid friction in doctrine, governance, and personal relationships. Many groups claim roots in the true church yet assert exclusive status as the body of Christ, labeling others Laodicean or fallen away. Smaller fellowships and independent members also trace connections to the historical church, though only Christ as Head can confirm their standing. This environment creates a dangerous mix because individuals can move between organizations to shield unrepented sins such as pride, greed, or divisiveness rather than confront them. Such movement spreads wrong attitudes, fosters repeated offenses, and prevents growth toward the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. The situation tempts members to justify personal preferences as unity while avoiding the selflessness, submission, and service required for genuine oneness. Christ desires His body to function as one new man, reconciled through His sacrifice, built together as a holy temple where every part supplies what promotes edification in love. Scripture shows that the church began in one accord on Pentecost and that this unity produces the fruits of righteousness. Without it, spiritual completion stalls, as peace among brethren enables character development and preparation for future service in God's plan. The ministry equips saints for this work by teaching the knowledge of the Son of God, yet each member must personally walk worthy of the calling through humility, forbearance, and speech that builds up rather than divides. Only by putting on the new man in righteousness and true holiness can the scattered condition give way to the singular body Christ prayed would reflect the oneness between the Father and the Son.

Nannyism arises in the church when members delegate responsibilities that belong solely to God onto human leaders and organizations, fostering an idolatrous focus on those leaders rather than on Him. This occurs when members identify with spiritual figures more than with God, as the Corinthians did by aligning themselves with particular apostles whom they viewed as benefactors capable of providing for them. Such alignment creates division within the Body and stems from a carnal tendency to rally around a strong human leader or successful organization in the expectation that it will carry members along and shield them from consequences. False ministers exacerbate the condition by seeking personal followings instead of directing people to God, while some leaders today stir up fears of the Tribulation only to promise safety and divine favor based merely on affiliation with the right group. The result is complacency in which members neglect personal responsibility for overcoming, producing the fruit of the Spirit, and growing into the image of the Father and the Son. Without the struggle required to develop character, spiritual faculties atrophy, and individuals behave as though normal rules and eternal consequences do not apply when their leader or church appears to be the winning team. This mental delegation of what belongs to God alone stalls the very character formation that regeneration initiates and that God intends to complete through active, individual effort.

The scattering of the church of God from one corporate organization into hundreds is best explained as the result of idolatry, since God promises to scatter His people and leave them few in number when they provoke Him through idolatry and forgetting Him (Deuteronomy 4:23-27; Jeremiah 18:15-17). One form of idolatry is turning the church into an object of greater desire and delight than the God it was meant to glorify. Israel and Judah did this with the Temple, and God promised to profane and break His own sanctuary. He calls it their arrogant boast, the desire of their eyes, the delight of their soul, their stronghold, their joy and their glory. These descriptions expose a wrong focus, because all of those things should have been God. The Temple was important, since God commanded it to be built and rebuilt, but it was only a means to the proper worship of God. It was never to be admired above Him or to become the source of the people's security. In the same way, the church is a spiritual organism of called-out believers given God's Spirit, and its purpose is to perfect the saints into the image of God. The corporate organizations that gather believers serve a vital role. Yet because they are visible and tangible, other believers or the organizations can grow larger in the mind than God, and members can find fellowship with one another, trust, confidence, and security in membership rather than in Christ and in knowing God Himself. When that happens, the means becomes the end. God is willing to dismantle violently what He commissioned if it draws His people away from Him, and the church of God is not immune to this.

Trusting in a structure God commissioned, rather than in God Himself, turns that structure into an idol. Judah put greater trust in the Temple of the Lord than in the Lord of the Temple. Because God's house stood in Jerusalem, the people assumed He would never let it be destroyed, and God calls that confidence a lie, useless, profitless, and fatally deceptive. This false security fostered sin, especially abuse of the vulnerable: oppressing the stranger, widow, and fatherless, shedding innocent blood, stealing, lying, and committing adultery and idolatry. The people behaved as if they held a free pass, taking the Temple's presence as God's full approval of their lives. The building became more real to them than the God it was meant to glorify, so God destroyed it. The same danger applies to the church of God, whether understood as an organization or as the fellowship of believers. Some come to value the church above the God they are supposed to be coming to know, and find great security simply in belonging. Some leaders even guarantee safety during Jacob's Trouble and the Day of the Lord based on where one attends Sabbath services and sends tithes, rather than on one's relationship with God. Encouraging others in such trust deserves even greater condemnation (Matthew 5:19; Luke 17:1-2; James 3:1). Presuming protection (Revelation 3:10) because one's church is deemed Philadelphian is little different from concluding that Jerusalem was unassailable because of the Temple. If one's relationship with God is not right, nothing else matters.

Spiritual autoimmunity, the misidentifying of other parts of Christ's Body as enemies, afflicts God's church and makes the whole Body function with tumult and inefficiency. It shows itself in boastful comparisons between one's own minister or group and another's, in insinuations that members are less spiritual or less converted because they send tithes to a different address or are on a different mailing list, and in leaders forbidding members to fellowship with another organization's members merely because its approach or administration differs. Genuine defenses are needed, since Scripture warns of false prophets, apostles, teachers, and brethren. The problem is improper discernment combined with a lack of forbearance, which finds enemies at every turn. Members blind to their own spiritual state presume the moral high ground and treat mere disagreement as offense. Church leadership exists, according to Ephesians 4:11-13, for equipping the saints and edifying the Body, not for adding to it, because only God draws people into the Body (John 6:44). Leaders are to tend the wounded Body, binding wounds and setting bones, rather than dragging it forward while one part assaults another. The cure is simple though hard to apply: focus on the Head, Jesus Christ, and less on offending parts. He judges who belongs to His Body, assigns responsibilities, and determines what the Body should do. Members should ask Him for the vision to see as He does, including their own spiritual state, so that a Body working in concert glorifies Him.