God's appointed representatives are not sinless or infallible, yet their office stands. Scripture gives plenty of evidence of the weaknesses of His servants: Moses had a temper he had to learn to control, David's failings are familiar, Jeremiah took on God and accused Him of tricking him, and Herbert Armstrong struggled with his own nature. None of this changed the fact of their office or kept God from using them. God controlled Herbert Armstrong in the matters that were important to our relationship with God, so that we might come out in His image. Peter's denial of Christ shows the same thing. Singling out Peter as first among equals does not mean he was better or more moral; it means God appointed him to an office, and that office is to be respected because it represents God. The issue is never whether a man is as smart as the leader, or whether he is old or weak, but whom God appointed. The man remains God's representative until God removes him by death or because of the poor conduct of his life. Because every man is fallible, the sins of the leader can discourage and turn aside anyone who follows the man rather than God. Such disappointment is evidence that one was following the man. God is faithful and never changes, so people are to trust Him and follow the man only as the man follows Christ.

The man God uses is not infallible and is not without sin, yet God is able to control him so that correct doctrine reaches His people. Human leaders may weaken, be slandered as confused or senile, or fail in many ways, but the doctrinal base was set in place while the apostle was in full command of his faculties, and God's faithfulness does not depend on the man's perfection. The real question is therefore not the fallibility of the servant but whether God is capable and faithful to deliver truth through him. God is the One on trial. Rejecting His servant is rejecting Him, and an unbroken connection runs from His government in heaven to the man heading His work. The faith that matters is that God can oversee things and see that the truth gets to His church. The servant stands between no one and God, because each person's relationship with God is one-on-one. Human fallibility also shows in the repeated pattern of God's people. Israel fell into idolatry again after each good leader died, as the book of Judges shows, and the church is no better. Vanity, the illusion of being above such things, and Laodicean self-righteousness blind people to their own weakness. Human nature never changes, so the pattern repeats, yet it does not have to if people learn the lesson, repent, tear down their idols, and hold to the doctrine delivered.

God's appointment of an apostle has nothing to do with the man being infallible or sinless; it rests on God's faithfulness to His own character and the patterns He set early in His word. The man is merely a chosen vessel, a tool, like Abraham, Jacob, Peter, or Paul, and the office was given by God's election, not by his greatness, intelligence, or equality with others. God makes some vessels to honor and some to dishonor, and He permits tares to be sown within the fellowship, so people are not equally converted or equally gifted. Church government is only a government of men trying to rule as God would, and they do it very imperfectly. It is not the government of God, which is in heaven. Most of those God calls are among the lowly of the world who do many things wrong out of ignorance and weakness. An apostle would readily admit he did not do everything right and got some things wrong, yet he was quick to repent when shown his error. Because of this, believers are responsible to check what any minister teaches, and whoever allows a man to come between himself and God shares in the sin. Comparing ourselves among ourselves is unwise.

Human fallibility stands in direct contrast to the unchanging nature of God and His Word. While God declares that He changes not and that every good and perfect gift comes from above with no variableness or shadow of turning, human nature proves volatile and self-directed. People readily trust in themselves that they are righteous, allowing their judgments to become skewed whenever biblical truths require personal sacrifice or discomfort. This tendency leads individuals to reject portions of God's eternal teachings in favor of their own opinions, justifications, or lies that avoid the cost of obedience. The pattern appears consistently across history. Ancient Greeks researched God's creation yet turned to their own views. Israelites in the wilderness and after Joshua's death did what was right in their own eyes rather than follow divine directives. Pharisees in Jesus' day despised teachings that challenged their self-trust. Even after conversion, some in the early church retained Gnostic elements instead of fully disengaging from prior philosophies, while later members of the Worldwide Church of God accepted massive doctrinal shifts of similar origin. This fallibility opens the door to deception through floods of appealing yet twisted words on moral and spiritual subjects. It permits selective acceptance of truth and fuels doctrines that separate inner spirituality from material conduct, leaving individuals without authoritative guidance. In every case, the result is the same: humans drift from the narrow way clearly spelled out in Scripture, demonstrating that only wholehearted reliance on God's infallible Word counters the innate human propensity to chart an independent and ultimately destructive course.

Human understanding of unfulfilled prophecy remains highly speculative and subject to change because it originates from fallible men rather than direct revelation. Even when guided by God's Spirit, teachers and students alike operate with partial knowledge and cannot speak with certainty beyond the explicit statements of Scripture itself. Herbert Armstrong grasped the overall framework of prophecy yet offered predictions and timings that have not materialized, demonstrating that his specific prognostications constitute expert opinion rather than infallible truth. Rigid attachment to every detail of such human formulations risks rendering the church obsolete, much as other groups have become fixed in outdated patterns while the world moves on. Scripture reinforces this limitation by declaring that prophecy never arose from private human impulse but from the Holy Spirit, so its certainty rests solely on God while its interpreters remain liable to error and incomplete insight. Prophetic language is deliberately symbolic and obscure, ensuring that full comprehension awaits future fulfillment. Consequently, believers are urged to watch current events rather than rely on prior conclusions, acknowledging that even the apostle Paul knew and prophesied only in part. This recognition of fallibility redirects attention from speculative prophecy to the enduring priorities of doctrine and Christian living, where divine judgment will examine obedience to the commands to love God and neighbor.