theophiles.org - In Another Step Away from Armstrong, Worldwide Church of God Changes Name

In Another Step Away from Armstrong, Worldwide Church of God Changes Name

Written by Jim

Tuesday, 21 April 2009 21:03

Ethics Daily reports:

The Worldwide Church of God, which re-examined and later rebuked the teachings of founder Herbert W. Armstrong after his death in 1986, has changed its name to Grace Communion International.

It’s the second name change for the denomination that Armstrong founded as the Radio Church of God in 1934, and church leaders say it’s a better reflection of its mainstream evangelical theology.

Comments

PinocchiosFurniture - How Does Stuff Like This Make Page 1?

|2009-04-23 23:34:20

How does such silly stuff like this ever make Page 1?

YIKES!

emperorbma

|2009-04-25 17:05:51

Care to explain why you think that a heretical group returning to orthodox Christian theology NOT front page material?

PineHall - Christian?

|2009-04-25 10:13:18

How orthodox is their theology now?

emperorbma

|2009-04-25 17:11:54

Honestly, having looked over where they came from and where they are now, the change is rather astounding.

Before, under Armstrong:
1. They were anti-Trinitarian and taught that there was a "God family" with Jesus and the Father being two separate beings and the Holy Spirit was the "mind of God," not a person.
2. They maintained that other Christians would be condemned in a "third resurrection" and that they were the only true Church.
3. They taught that their true believers would become a part of the "God family" after their third resurrection.
4. They taught that Hell and Heaven did not exist.
5. They rejected Sunday and the Christian holidays of Easter and Christmas.
6. In place of the traditional Christian festivals, they required observance of the Jewish Sabbath and the Jewish festivals.
7. The Law, by and large, was held to be the central principle despite claiming to be based on grace. For example, among other things, they maintained mandatory tithing and they tended to eschew modern medicine and things like birthday celebrations.

Afterwards, they are now:
1. They are now explicitly Trinitarian and accept the historical Creeds of the Christian Church: Apostles', Nicene and Chalcedonian.
2. They consider other Christian churches true representations of the Gospel and express remorse at their historical slander of their fellow Christians.
3. They reject as heretical the notion of the "God family."
4. They accept the traditional doctrine of Heaven and Hell.
5. They acknowledge that Sunday is a valid Christian day of worship although they do not practice it universally.
6. They maintain the traditional Christian festival days now.
7. Their entire understanding of Law and Gospel is now different from their original position and well in line with many types of Protestant theology. Likewise, they no longer reject modern medicine and such non-religious activities as birthday celebrations.

In a way, it looks like they figured out that the Scripture teaches something far different than what their founder said it did and it is a rather interesting case study in returning to orthodoxy from a Judaizing heresy.

PineHall

|2009-04-25 22:20:54

Thank you for all that research!

emperorbma

|2009-04-25 22:29:23

Yeah, when I saw the story I got curious and dug up some more info.

laika

|2009-04-26 00:03:46

PineHall wrote:

Thank you for all that research!

yeah, empy's nothing if not thorough.

emperorbma

|2009-04-26 02:16:52

Aw shucks...

SteveGus

|2009-04-28 11:41:17

They seem to have also abandoned Anglo-Israelism / Christian Identity as well, which was their most politically dangerous, if not spiritually dangerous, belief.

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Our valuable member Jim has been with us since Thursday, 03 April 2008.

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