COG History: Lake Tahoe and the "Godders"

There is a great article up in a Trukee/Lake Tahoe newspaper about the Worldwide Church of God's Lake Tahoe feast site:

When Worldwide Church of God invaded North Lake Tahoe!: A boon to local business, this church gathering had some skeletons in its closet (Moonshineink)

In the fall of 1961 the Radio Church of God held its first Feast of Tabernacles at the Blythe Arena in Squaw Valley (home of the Winter Olympics skating events just a year earlier.)

The week long gathering brought up to 10,000 church members to Squaw Valley every fall, until the Blythe Arena collapsed in the early 1980s. While North Tahoe folks saw the annual visits of the Radio Church of God (later changed to the Worldwide Church of God) as a much needed boom to the slow fall economy, it turns out the church was an unorthodox and controversial organization, with many ex-members referring to it as a cult.  

Rod Stollery, who in 1961 helped his parents put out the then fledging Tahoe City World, remembers the church’s first visit to the area. “The merchants weren’t expecting much business from them,” said Stollery. When the owners of the Alpine Liquor and Sporting Goods left town for what they thought would be a slow week, Stollery took over the shop. “We were quickly inundated by church members who were fond of liquor. We sold out in two days and had to have a truckload sent up from the valley … needless to say, the event was an economical godsend to the area.”

The event would be front page news in the Tahoe City World every year, and a full page spread inside welcomed the church to town with a map showing church members Tahoe’s recreational opportunities. The paper was also full of ads from local businesses welcoming church members to Tahoe City’s finest dining and shopping establishments.

Cheryl Bechdolt Balbuena back then was a waitress in her family business, The Tahoe Inn (At the current location of Blue Agave). It was an inn, bar, and had two restaurants. “We were crazy slammed for ten days. The girl church members always wore modest dresses and no makeup, and the men wore sports jackets and ties. They were nice, but kept to themselves. And were really bad tippers, sometimes they didn’t tip at all.” In fact, the slogan around the restaurant was “Oh, no, The Godders are coming. We are going to work and not get paid,” said Balbuena. (“The Godders” was the universal locals’ term for the members of the Radio/Worldwide Church of God). 

The story ends with this:

While the goals of the Worldwide Church of God were certainly controversial, many long time Tahoe locals still fondly remember how the “Godders” helped North Tahoe businesses get through the deadly quiet days of fall.

Read story here.

Fred Coulter Church Spin-off Says Only Those 17 And Older Are Allowed To Read Site

The Christian Biblical Church of God is headed up by Fred Coulter, a failed former Worldwide Church of God minister who, at one point in time claimed, that by feeling the bumps on people heads he could determine their character and mental abilities.

Coulter sets himself up as the ultimate authority on Greek and has worked overtime in reorganizing the Bible into the "correct order" he believes it had originally been intended.  He then published his new bible, which was printed in China for an incredibly low price, to his members and the gullible public an inflated high price. Not only did Coulter reorganize the location of biblical books, but his real intent was to discredit New testament verses that started that the Old Covenant was no longer.  One reviewer wrote:

However, it became clear that this reordering of books was not the intent and purpose of this new translation. Soon into my survey I began to note a pattern of what appear to be intentional errors in translation. I suspect that these errors are not honest changes of text based on an academic application of understanding of ancient languages, but instead an attempt to re-address doctrines of the New Testament. All of the errors tend to be those passages in the New Testament which revoke the legal authority of the Old Testament. 

If there is one thing that infuriates the die-hard legalists in the church is the claim that the Old Covenant has been done away with, which essentially means the 600 some laws of the OT are not enforced upon grace filled Christians.

Coulter is also the one who got many of the conspiracy nuts in the church all frothing at the mouth that the church was being taken over by Masons, Jesuits and Jews that were supposedly also practicing witches. This was all done in the mid-1970's before he was disfellowshipped in 1979.  Coulter was actually disfellowshipped and excommunicated THREE times!  The third time was Rod Meredith did it in 2008 when he discovered LCG members were listening to Fred teachings and he publicly disfellowshipped him, even though Coulter was NOT an LCG member and never had been (see below).

Coulter is like many of the other COG's who demands that his followers tithe.  He has had several groups of people leave over the years when they discovered though well thought out study, that the Bible does not require tithing in the New Covenant.

All of that brings us to today.  In February 2018, Coulter's UK office manager resigned and passed the keys, office and money over to a David Sheridan. Coulter claimed this was not his idea and does not recognize Sheridan to UK office manager.  Coulter also demanded the money be returned.  Sheridan has refused and now the CBCG in the UK has rebranded itself as The Christian Biblical Church of God Endinburgh Scotland.  They even have a new web site found here.

They make this claim on their page:

We at cbcgedinburgh.co.uk are not responsible for their content or any sites they operate or provide links to nor do we give our complete endorsement, you must be your own judge.

Which translates that they are not responsible for the errors on Fred Coulter's main web site which has recently charged its name to Truth of God.

The new CBCGES is also age restricted.  No one under 17 is allowed to visit or read their page.  One has to wonder WHY anyone under 17 would even WANT to read their page!

When our Website is running,  only persons who are at least 17yrs years of age are invited to use it !!!

They also assume no responsibility of anyone damaged or hurt by reading their site:

cbcgedinburgh.co.uk accept no liability arising out of your usage of our Website or any cbg.org or linked Websites.

As the years go by, I never cease to be amazed at the sheer lunacy that comes out of the Church of God any more.  For a group of people who claim to be the "true believers", never has there been a group of people more screwed up than what the Church of God has become.  Every day brings something new.

Read more about Fred Coulter and the Christian Biblical Church of God here:

Beware of Fred Coulter!

Christian Biblical Church of God--An Ungodly Experience Nobody Should Have To Endure

Is Fred Coulter's Christian Biblical Church of God Imploding?

Fred Coulter, 'Zionist Jews' and the 'Synagogue of Satan'

Living Church of God's Rod Meredith disfellowships Fred Coulter a third time

From the Presiding Plonker

Fred Coulter Demonizes The Journal

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We always hear about the many amazing things that Jesus of Nazareth apparently did, but nobody ever asks about the things that Jesus supposedly COULD have done, being omnipotent, but either didn't bother to do or didn't think were all that important.