Sabbath 7/8/32/120

Dear Friends,

This Sabbath Message takes the form of an open letter to the offshoots of WCG. It is a cover letter for the release of the new paper Ditheism (No. 076b) which deals with the errors of the WCG system and the false theology within the WCG. We had previously dealt with the false doctrine of the god Attis in Binitarianism and its entry to Christianity in Rome in the Second Century (see the paper Binitarian and Trinitarian Misrepresentation of the Early Theology of the Godhead (No. 127b). Binitarianism entered the Church of God in the 1995 changes to the Church of God (Seventh Day) and others that have adopted the false doctrines of the worship of the god Attis and also in being offered as a replacement for the Ditheist structure of WCG by quasi-Trinitarians.

An Open Letter to the Worldwide Church of God (WCG) Offshoots and the other Churches of God:

Why are you, the offshoots of the WCG system (and the other Sabbatarian systems), so divided against each other and hold so much animosity towards one another? The division among you is breathtaking, and yet there is much doctrinal commonality in your belief systems. You of WCG come from the same parent belief system developed by Herbert Armstrong and his senior ministerial staff and yet you conduct yourselves like the divisive Protestants.  Why is this? Are those who cause division in the Churches of God not to be marked?

When the WCG system began to explode in the 70s with senior ministers leaving, and then the final tearing apart occurring in the 90s under the Tkachs, many bewildered brethren were hoping for someone to come forward to unite everyone back into one cohesive church. That never happened.  Why?

One WCG minister who was trained under Herbert Armstrong and staff, and who formed his own group, explained to his congregation that; “We are waiting for someone who everyone can unite behind and bring us together.” So far, that has not happened in the US or Britain. Certain former WCG ministers among you have their own agenda to protect. And as time passes on, there are some doctrinal differences now among you that drive the wedge even deeper. 

Have you ever thought that you may have more in common with the Protestants than you think possible, and that you have many serious doctrinal errors, as they also do? Could this be part of your problem? Yes indeed that is the case. As a matter of fact, your belief systems contain doctrinal errors as major as the Protestant Trinitarian system. Your doctrinal errors stem from the parent WCG system, and you seem incapable of moving beyond and correcting those errors. The plain truth is that your foundation is flawed like the Trinitarian Protestants. You have been taught a false understanding in the Nature of God, namely Ditheism which is pagan polytheism. Ditheism is every bit as false as Trinitarianism and has to be stamped out of the Churches of God. Your ministers are unable to identify an historical commonality of doctrine because none in fact exists. Your errors are nowhere to be found in our predecessors because it was an invention of the Armstrong system and occurs nowhere else in history. For that reason there are pseudo theologians among you that are seeking to assert the Binitarian system that entered Second Century Christianity from Rome as the original doctrine of the church, which is false.

This false doctrine of Ditheism is now confined mainly to the United States where the influence of Herbert Armstrong and the WCG system was strongest. Because it is confined to the USA, many Sabbath-keeping Christians in other countries are beginning to come together into unified sound doctrine and reject the US based false systems. There is phenomenal growth taking place right under your noses in various countries throughout the world and especially in the African continent. It is occurring from the Sabbath-keeping Churches, and even from many non-Sabbath keeping Churches. They are moving away from Trinitarianism and moving towards sound doctrine particularly in understanding the true Nature of God. Many non-Sabbath keeping Churches are now keeping the Sabbath with new understanding and have discarded Trinitarianism. Many are converting from Islam to sound doctrine. That was something that the WCG system could never achieve with its false doctrine of Ditheism. It is being discredited so Binitarianism is falsely asserted as the doctrine of the early church.

The Christian Churches of God (CCG) is experiencing the induction of entire churches from the Seventh Day Adventist system along with the COG (Seventh Day) and the Seventh Day Baptists and a large number of other COG groups from the ex-WCG system. These churches are seeking the sound doctrines of the original faith established by Christ, the Apostles and Prophets. They are everywhere rejecting the false doctrines of Adventism and of the WCG system and of the Binitarianism embraced by the COG (SD) in 1995.

It is quite impressive to see these churches embrace the basic doctrines of the Church as published by CCG, free of the errors of the WCG system. People are coming in and being unified under the CCG banner based on basic biblical understanding. The ex-WCG system has virtually ceased to exist in Africa outside of South Africa. Almost all have joined CCG. Why are the Africans and other nations able to dissect and understand the issues and the English speakers are not able to do so? The answer is that their thinking has not been as corrupted. The African offshoots have expressed, in writing to us, their disgust with the idolatry of the ministry in the US and British led offshoots. WCG was brainwashed, particularly in the USA. One bizarre example is the Paris Church. One week it meets as the LCG with an LCG minister and the next it meets as the UCG church with their minister and all in the same facility. It is like having the soup de jour. Many do not agree with their doctrines anyway.

Ministers and leaders from some of these churches are requesting, from the CCG ministry, re-baptism and re-ordination. They study CCG’s statement of beliefs and recognize the soundness of biblical doctrine explained and come to understanding and the desire to re-educate themselves away from their false doctrines and false prophecies. It is not just a matter of false prophecy which we have examined in the paper False Prophecy (No. 269). We will offer $500 to the first person able to produce a prophecy that anyone of these systems got correct. It is our view that no system, either Adventist, or Jehovah’s Witnesses or RCG/WCG or its offshoots, or Church of God (Seventh Day), ever got a prophecy correct. They were not just mostly wrong, they were always false. 

Many Muslims see the commonality of beliefs with the Qur’an’s teachings regarding the original Church and their exposition and rejection of the Trinitarian system. We are establishing churches in Muslim countries from all over Africa and in Arabic-speaking North Africa and the Middle East from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean. We will have established churches all over the Middle East by Passover including the Yemen and Saudi Arabia. This was never possible before under the WCG doctrinal system as it was false and seen to be so by everyone outside of its membership. That was the reason God allowed WCG and the other COG groups to be scattered.

Many of its members saw that WCG doctrine was polytheist but simply had to sit it out thinking that it was the “only show in town” keeping the feasts. That is certainly no longer the case, if it ever was. CCG has corrected the WCG errors and restored the correct doctrines of the Churches of God including the Calendar.

So why do the offshoots all claim similar doctrines yet refuse to combine together and heal the errors in the Churches of God? Why does their ministry foment schism and defame one another? They have no doctrinal issues to expound and so they rely on defamation by their ministry. CCG ministry is often greeted with tales of defamation of their ministry and of others by the offshoots. Family seems to be no obstacle for the practice. Many new to the faith are appalled by it and often initially approach CCG as a result, because they are different.

Why do you sit there following these false doctrines or remain at home supporting no one and no work contrary to Christ’s specific instructions? Why are the nations outside of the US and white nations of the British Commonwealth able to work to establish a unified church system when those within are unable to do so? The simple answer is that they were brainwashed and are unable to overcome the errors because their ministry do not wish to deal with it or appear unable to do so. There are more than twice as many baptized members of the WCG system as of 1995 sitting at home than fellowshipping in the offshoots and most of them are in the US, Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and in South Africa. How long halt you between two opinions? If Yahovah of Hosts is God then worship him. If Baal/Attis/Adonis/Osiris is not God, why do you keep his Binitarian doctrine or the pagan form of Ditheist doctrines invented by Herbert Armstrong (cf. 1Kings 18:21).

The other nations seem to be able to see through the problem and regroup under sound doctrine. How long will you stay crippled and non-effective in the Work of God? Repent and be restored to the faith once delivered.

Wade Cox
Coordinator General in conjunction with Russell Hilburn, Tom Schardt, Jeremy Hatchett, Arthur Hartman, and Donovan Schricker, and from the many other ministers of the former membership of the Churches of God.