THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
KEITH MALCOM HUNT
So I was ordained to the ministry of Jesus Christ at age 40; a new life of spiritual work was fully put into first gear.
Returning home from St. Louis, within a week I had a phone call from one of the Elders in California.
“Keith, we have a problem with Fred Coulter. We are not sure if we are going to fly you out here or put you on conference call.” A day of two later the Elder called back and said I would be on conference call. All the Elders would be present, and all the local church members in Hollister, California would be present; it was going to be an open session of all Elders speaking one by one, and I would be the last to speak because I was the new kid open the block, and basically had no idea why all this was happening. And indeed I sure did not; I personally got along with Fred just fine; he was easy to talk to, no “airs” about him, down-to-earth as they say.
All this was going to take place the next weekly Sabbath day. My wife and I got ready, the amplifier speaker was on conference call setting. The time it was scheduled for had arrived—— the first elder introduced things and then was allowed to continue with “his side of things” as concerning Fred Coulter.
It was a 6 hour session—— as I think back now, that blows me away that it was six hours, before it was my turn to speak.
After 6 hours my mind could see what was happening here—— it was all “personality problems.”
I spoke and told every how it all came across to me—— personality problems; we all needed to humble ourselves, and get passed our personalities.
My talking was not long; there was a hush; then an Elder said, “We the Elders will now move to a private room for however long this takes.”
Maybe 15 minutes went by—— the Elders came back and there was an upbeat atmosphere, obviously smiles, then general joy was in the air. All seemed to be solved!
I was elated and relieved. We could all now get on with doing God’s work, getting the word of God, salvation, and the Kingdom, out to the world.
It was only two days later and the phone rang again. The same Elder as before who phoned me, said, “Keith, I am calling to tell you Fred Coulter has left the Biblical Church of God.”
I was stunned silent. I said northing but gave a “Thank you for letting me know.”
I was just devastated by this news.
I immediately phoned Fred; he had little to say, but I could tell he was crushed by what all this, I guess “attack” on him from all the other Elders. I invited him to fly out to us, get away from it all, come to us in Oshawa.
Fred declined my invitation.
I just did not know what on earth this was all about. I got along fine with Fred.
It was about 6 months later that another Elder called me to fill me in on what was going on with all the Elders, concerning the subject of “deacons” in the church. All but this one Elder was saying there should be no deacons in the church. This elder was pulling out of the BCG. It was not long until the rest of the Elders were through one Elder, calling me on the subject. I told him the office of “deacons” is clearly taught in the New Testament. Well within a few weeks, I was told the BCG was going to fly me out to California, and before all the Elders I could present my proof for what I believed about the office of Deacons in the church.
I arrived and would be staying in the home of one Elder called Bruce Barret. None of the Elders had seen me, no photo of me was ever asked for. I remember Chuck Barret [brother to Bruce] on seeing me, after shaking my hand, said, “How old are you?” Now I’ve kept myself in good shape and at age 40 I looked like I could be about 28. I told Chuck I was 40. He seemed to then be okay with my age.
I was at Bruce’s home that Thursday evening and he and his wife and daughter about 18, or 19, were very friendly and warm. I remember his wife saying she loved England, had never been there but had photo books of England that stole her heart. I did tell her that indeed the countryside and gardens over there were magnificent.
The next day I was to meet the Elders and they would give me the chance to prove to them that the office of deacons in the church, was Biblical.
I had brought with me the one volume New Testament commentary by Albert Barnes, for me the best commentary ever written on the New Testament. I had my proof ready to go. I think it took me about an hour to prove “deacons” were in the first century Church of God.
Not one Elder tried to prove me wrong!
I was then told, I could do all this once more, the next day, at Sabbath services in front of the whole congregation. And so I did—— no one tried to prove me wrong; there was just silence after my presentation.
All the Elders I was told later, would be getting together for a relaxed Saturday evening.
And so it was. No official talk about “deacons.” But one Elder during the evening let the cat out of the bag.
“Keith, we are against the office of ‘deacons’ because in the Radio Church of God, we had some really bad ones, acting like demigods,” I agreed with him, it was true. I replied “Yes it was so, but that did not ‘do away with’ Bible truth.” He said no more to me about the subject.
A little later still, Chuck Barret came over to talk to me.
“Keith, if you should buy a building for Church services in Oshawa, it would belong to the Biblical Church of God, not your local church.”
“Are you being serious?” I asked him in disbelief as to what he had just told me.
He was indeed very serious!
I told him well that was just not going to happen; we would never be under some "head-quarters” church as it became in the Radio Church of God—— authority from the top down.
Chuck Barret said no more.
I began to see what was going on—— it was Chuck Barret that was wanting control of this Biblical Church of God organization.
Sunday afternoon the Elders met again, not one brought up the subject of “deacons” in the church.
I was to fly back to Oshawa, Ontario, the next day. Towards the end of the casual meeting, Chuck came over to me, and said, “Well Keith, I guess you’ve got a decision to make.” I replied I indeed had a decision to make. I knew what he was getting at, authority from the top down. I had actually already made the decision but did not tell Barret I had made it.
Arriving at the Toronto airport I was met by my deacon Jerry and a few others. I related the basic gist of it all to them—— a head-quarters, one man, rulership of the Biblical Church of God. Jerry looked at me and said, “You have to resign from them.” I fully agreed, and the next day sent out my letter to Chuck Barret to inform him that I had resigned from being an Elder with the Biblical Church of God. Our Oshawa church would now be an independent local Sabbath church.
A few months later I was speaking to a friend in Vancouver, who also had left the Radio Church of God, and knew all about the Biblical Church of God, and what was going on even more than I did. He knew about this debate on the “deacon” subject I had had with the Elders. And he also knew about this one Elder from Oregon, who had gone back to his church and said to his congregation, “Keith Hunt gave us proof of deacons in the church; no one could prove him wrong—— but we ain’t doing it anyway.”
My O My I could hardly believe what that friend was telling me. A supposed minister of God was given proof that the office of “deacons” in the NT church was true, but they were not going to follow the Bible on it anyway!
I lost contact with the Biblical Church of God, and as far as I knew within a few years it did not exist any more.
The church in Oshawa was now fully independent. We had a professional sign made to put out on the sidewalk, on Sabbath days, inviting all and everyone to come on in to our Sabbath service.
We had some very interesting events through the 1980s—— some I will tell you about next time.
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