Sabbath 16/11/32/120

Dear Friends,

Yesterday we had another twelve churches join us. Six churches were from the Congo DR with three areas and two churches each. Our senior coordinator in the area, Mudimba Muhindo, will induct them there. Things are progressing very well in the Congo DR and we hope to have two new Cyber cafes operational shortly. This will assist in our evangelism programs there.

The other group was the Sabbath Church of God of Africa. Its people were involved as members of the Church of God (Seventh Day). They left because of the incorrect and inconsistent doctrines of the Church of God (SD) in the USA. They formed their own congregations to correct error and found us on the Internet. We will no doubt find out more when their five churches are inducted. The main body is at Mwanza with a group down at Dodoma and others up at Tarime and at Ngorongoro and regions. Walter also inducted the former SDA church group at Kakamega last week and expects to return next week for more inductions in the Western Province region of Kenya. There is another church elsewhere in Kenya.

What is happening? Why are so many Sabbatarian and other churches joining us in such great quantities?

We have inducted 550 odd churches so far this year in Africa alone. It will be over 600 by the Passover.

Why are they leaving these US based denominations? The answer is that these US based churches do not understand the Bible doctrines and they underestimate the fidelity and genuine desire of the other nations to understand the Bible.

The greatest errors are concerning the Nature of God. The US have been so indoctrinated by these “flim-flam” men with no sound education in the doctrines of the Faith they think it is impious to assert that Christ was the Firstborn of the Creation of God (Col. 1:15). How did the Church of God sink so low in understanding in the Twentieth Century yet think it knew so much? The Sardis era was taken from the Reformation into the US with the Seventh Day Sabbath and Churches of God (Seventh Day). Truly it was the Sardis system and truly it was dead. The errors began with the false prophetess Ellen G. White (see the papers False Prophecy (No. 269) and also The Millennium and the Rapture (No. 095)). These churches were carried on by Herbert W. Armstrong who was credentialed by and was a minister of the Church of God (Seventh Day). He identified them as the Sardis era. It did not seem to compute with him that he was a Sardis minister. He wanted to be the Philadelphian era but did not behave that way. Further, the Bible is specific on the name of the Sardis church in demarcation and that is the one that has the name that it is “Living” but Christ says that it is dead. There has only been one church in history that has carried the name Living Church of God and that church exists today. The other offshoot has the name that it is United but it is anything but united.   It is rich and thinks it has need of nothing but it is poor pitiable, blind and naked (see also Rev. 3:1-22). There are three churches mentioned there in Revelation chapter 3. Only one is acceptable before God and its function and test is of brotherly love.
           
The churches from the offshoots of the Herbert Armstrong religion business are totally incapable of dealing with or taking on the Beast power and the incoherent theology of the Trinitarian and Islamic systems. The problem stems from the incoherent theology of the Churches of God (SD) in the conferences other than the Caldwell Conference. They were not able to teach Herbert Armstrong correctly and he simply did not know enough. He introduced a pagan Ditheism to the Church of God that it had not seen before except for the incoherent rambling from Rome and Alexandria from the last half of the Second Century. The errors of the Armstrong Theology are examined in the paper Ditheism (No. 76B).   He then claimed to be the Elijah promised to restore all things and proclaimed he had done that with his so-called 18 Restored Truths.

Why he could not have been Elijah is explained in the paper Elijah? (No. 233). The myth of the “18 Restored Truths” will be examined next week. His corrupt theology extended to false doctrine such as that of the fictitious “Third Resurrection” which has been examined in the paper The Fallacy of the Third Resurrection (No. 166).

The purpose of this week’s message is to deal with the problems on the doctrine of the Nature of God in the US based Churches of God including the now separated and Trinitarian SDA system. The simple fact of the matter is that the SDAs were penetrated and sold out the faith by adopting the false teachings of Ellen G. White and suspending critical judgment.

What is happening now is that pseudo-theologians are trying to extricate the Armstrong system and its offshoots from a hopeless morass of its own making. Herbert Armstrong’s bogus theology of Ditheism does not stand up to scrutiny and he knew it. They all know it, at least the ones that can analyse. That was why Herbert Armstrong introduced the Systematic Theology Project (STP) and the Church refused to accept it. He then gave the famous “getting the church back on track” sermon and denied all knowledge of it. I know personally the man who was behind the stage when that sermon was given. He states categorically that Herbert Armstrong lied. He subsequently resigned from the WCG.

What these people are now trying to assert is that the WCG was in fact Binitarian and that Binitarianism is the original doctrine of the church. Anyone who knows anything about what Herbert Armstrong taught will know that is a blatant lie. The problem was that the doctrine on the Nature of God was taught so seldom and so incoherently that no one really put it all together until Tkach and his weak minded Trinitarian assistants made it an issue and wrecked the church. The same happened to the COG (SD). I warned them that it would happen, just as the white ants had pushed it through the WCG, and they told me it could not happen with them as they were still bound by their constitution. Those were famous last words. The man who said it was removed as editor of the Bible Advocate in a matter of months and they placed another minister in charge of it to push their alleged declaration of Binitarianism through the church. They did that and wondered why virtually the entire Church of God (SD) outside of the US began to collapse. They simply don’t get it. They don’t understand the process by which Christianity was turned to the Trinitarian heresy.

Put simply Binitarianism is a pagan heresy that was brought in from the mystery cults to take over Christianity and it began with the false ministry at Rome. God allowed Satan to do it but he could not get rid of the Scriptures. Thus the Church of God could still study underground and be brought out over time. It did that under great persecution. The history of the Churches of God is told in outline in the work Role of the Fourth Commandment in the Historical Sabbath-keeping Churches of God (No. 170).

The process and the origins of Binitarianism and its accompanying heresy of Radical Unitarianism that denies the pre-existence of Christ are examined in the paper to be issued today and that is the paper Origins of Radical Unitarianism and Binitarianism (No. 76C). Radical Unitarianism came in from another area, namely the Freemasons in the USA. The Trinitarians penetrated and undermined the Churches of God from the US from the reorganisations in the 19th century right through the Twentieth Century and their quislings are still at it right now in the Churches of God. Do not believe that these people are Christians. They are not.

God has allowed this heresy and error to show who has the approval of God and we had better get it right.

I spoke with an ex-WCG person this week. He was aware of the growth of CCG and said we were now bigger than WCG was at its peak and I agreed that was fact. He said that the CCG papers on the Nature or Oneness of God were correct and the best he had seen. He said however, that he was cold and no longer hot. He said: “I have to be honest and speak against myself. You people are hot.” We discussed the fact that the offshoots were sitting round in groups doing nothing. He said: “No they are eating peanuts. That is doing something” and he laughed. He simply got tired of listening to the inane gossip and chatting with no resolution and no work for the faith and he was honest enough to know that was not what God desired. Pray that he gets his first love restored because he was once strong in the faith. Make sure that we all hold on to our first love and pray for each other in the faith.

Wade Cox
Coordinator General