Sabbath 3/9/38/120

Dear Friends,

This week we have been approached by people from various nations that have involvement with the WCG offshoots.

The major problem is that when people are confronted with error in the WCG doctrines introduced under Herbert Armstrong they have to come to grips with the fact that Herbert Armstrong was the source of most of the non-academic errors introduced into the RCG/WCG. The others were introduced by the badly trained unrepentant Trinitarians, Masons and Jewish plants in WCG.

The two fundamental errors of Armstrongism are, firstly, the false doctrine on the Nature of God based on the Ditheism that asserted that there were two true Gods and that Jesus Christ was a co-equal co-eternal god in the same way that the Father was God and they had a discussion as to who was to come down and be the son of the other and which one was to die and be resurrected in the plan of Salvation.  This heresy was totally contrary to the Bible and is directly contrary to the doctrine for eternal life, namely that they know the One True God and Jesus Christ whom He sent (Jn 17:3) (See the paper Ditheism (No. 076B)).

The second major heresy was the introduction of the Hillel modern Jewish Calendar that was not issued until 358 CE 328 years after the death and resurrection of Christ and the placement of the Holy Spirit in the Church.  The Church always had the correct calendar and was never sucked in by these apostate Jews.  We have absolute proof from the written records of First Century especially those of Philo as to what the Calendar was during the Temple period and some Jews even today keep that Calendar based on the conjunction. (See the paper God’s Calendar (No. 156)).

Wherever there are God’s people gathered together we can be assured that Satan will be active there in trying to test and try the saints. We could ask why God allowed Herbert Armstrong to operate in the Church with such false doctrine and engage in such false prophecy and subject the brethren to the abuse they suffered.  The answer appears to be to try them and the ministry that also abused them and allowed the seizure of the Church and its assets. To see the extent of the problem we need to examine the paper False Prophecy (No. 269).  Much of the control was exercised by brainwashing and the promise that the Church would be spared from any inconvenience if they stayed there and they would then be protected from persecution due to being taken to a Place of Safety which was usually listed in later years as Petra. The nature of this false doctrine is examined in the paper The Place of Safety (No. 194).

In the alternative another false doctrine was established to punish the members if they left or were dismissed. This doctrine was the Third Resurrection which asserted that God had established a Third Resurrection which had no scriptural base and asserted sin to God in resurrecting a class of people, namely those that disagreed with Herbert Armstrong, merely to kill them and burn their bodies in the lake of fire. This false doctrine was examined in the paper The Fallacy of the Third Resurrection (No. 166).

As was the usual case with the Churches of God over the centuries the Binitarians of the worship of the god Attis which was later developed into Trinitarianism from 381 CE was effected by using the false doctrine of Ditheism as a Binitarian form as they had done in Rome in the Second Century.  This heresy of Binitarianism was held to have been the original doctrine of the Church of God which is blasphemy.  That heresy was used to undermine the WCG from the 1970s and was pushed by Armstrong himself under the Systematic Theology Project or STP. He publicly denied all knowledge to the Church and trashed it when it became obvious that the Church would not accept the heresy.  The sequence of the adoption of Binitarianism and its progression to Trinitarianism is examined in the paper Binitarian and Trinitarian Misrepresentation of the Early Theology of the Godhead (No. 127B).

Why was it to occur as it did?  The basic reason was that prophecy had to be fulfilled. There were a number of prophecies that had to develop from North America.  After the reformation there had to be developed two major system so the Churches of God could progress.  The Thyatiran system of Revelation chapter 2 had to be stifled at the Reformation as it was threatening the existence of the Satanic Trinitarian false system based on Rome.  Thus Protestantism had to be created in order to suppress the Church of God until Satan’s time was near its end. That was not to be for another 500 years.

Thus the Sardis system was created and emerged as the Church of God (Seventh Day) and the Seventh Day Baptist system.  Out of the Church of God (Seventh Day) which was identified as the Sardis era by RCG and WCG came the Idol Shepherd of Ezekiel 34.  This man could only have been Herbert Armstrong.  He went blind in his right eye and his eldest son or right arm was cut off or killed in accordance with prophecy.

He was a credentialed minister of the Church of God (Seventh Day) and was paid by them and his ministry were credentialed by them through him.  The RCG until 1946 was a bona fide branch of the Church of God (Seventh Day) in two conferences.   

This Sardis system continued under the multiple elements until after Armstrong’s death in January 1986 through its measurement and dispersal. The final demarcation church of the Sardis era was created from the Global Church of God and took the name Living Church of God in 1997 as foretold in prophecy at Revelation 3:1.  The United Church of God was also created at end 1995.  These were the major elements of the Sardis system.

The Laodicean system was created from the elements of the Church of God (Seventh Day) at the 1844 great expectation.  They became the Seventh Day Adventist system and were undermined by Jesuits and became Trinitarian from the Unitarian system they were at the death of Uriah Smith in 1931. Between 1931 and 1978 they were all gradually converted to Trinitarianism and announced that doctrine in their Q and A systems in 1978.

These are the two larger Sabbatarian systems that are foretold in Revelation chapter 3 and they do not go into the First Resurrection but are declared Dead and Lukewarm respectively in prophecy.

The Third system or era is not very powerful but it is the Philadelphian system and is selected and called out of both these system.  It is pure in doctrine and is formed from the Danite Ephraimite system of the Last Days and its task is to warn the nations that Messiah is coming and to prepare the world for the arrival of the Witnesses and of Messiah.  This system was foretold through the prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah 4:15-16 and is the last of the Churches of God with the lampstand before the Witnesses (see the paper Warning of the Last Days (No. 044)).

This system is taken out in the measuring process that came from the declaration of the measuring from 1987 beginning the final or “this generation” of the Churches of God referred to by Christ before the Jubilee in 2027 and the Millennium beginning in 2028.

The trial of the elect over these end days will be serious and blessed are those that endure to the end.  We can give thanks to God that He has selected us to endure to the end and we are able to endure through our tests. Each week now we are contacted by those who are coming to see the truth and who are called out of the Sardis and Laodicean systems into the truth of the Commandments of God and the Faith and Testimony of Jesus Christ. They are coming to us now from different parts of the earth and from all various branches of the Churches of God.

Give thanks not that the demons are subject to you as was the case with the first of the Seventy[two] or Hebdomekonta [duo] of Luke 10:1,17.  It does not matter which element we are part of either the 144,000 or the Great Multitude. Only an unconverted mind seeks the power of the saints. Rejoice simply that our names are written in heaven.

Wade Cox
Coordinator General