I had a blurb a while back about the Waldenses and how they were NOT Sabbatarians or a remnant of the 'true church". You would think that the various COG's would do some actual research before they write their articles. CGI apparently did not feel the need to do so and relied upon illogical research of past COGers.
CGI's magazine Armor of God had this to say:
Extreme and excessive persecution was used to wipe out every historical trace of the Sabbath-keeping, Feast-keeping Church of God, which stood up for the doctrines left by the Apostles. As the Church of God struggled to survive, moving from place to place, it took on various ‘nicknames’ in different territories.
Names like the Paulicians, Waldenses, Leonists, Vaudas Cathars, and Albigensians were all attached at some time or another throughout the centuries, describing
these people and their movements.
Who does CGI rely upon for this information? An outdated and poorly research book and a COG members' research:
For example, Orthodox Christians date the Waldenses as originating in the twelfth century and named after a wealthy French merchant Peter Waldo, who was founder of a radical ascetic Christian movement. But much information has come to light proving the Waldenses existed as early as the second century.
The recent work of Andrew N. Dugger and Clarence O. Dodd, titled, A History of the True Church, and Richard C Nickels’ Six Papers on the History of the Church of God, have done much to preserve some of the earlier writings about these groups.
In another bold claim, they said that England was a sabbath keeping nation until Ethebert, King of Kent converted to Catholicism in 597 AD.
“Catholicism was not established in Britain, until the conversion of the Angles in the 6th century by Augustine of Canterbury. According to Butler, Ethelbert, king of Kent, was converted to Catholicism at Pentecost 597AD with some 10,000 subjects baptized at the pagan midwinter Christmas festival of 597. The Christians of Britain were up until that time, predominantly, Sabbath-keepers, who kept the food laws and the Holy Days.”
Being the Anglophile that I am and in the collection of numerous books I have back several hundred years, there is no mention in any of those books that the nation of England was a nation of sabbath keepers! Even my extensive collection of Celtic books never refer to the English or Saxons as "sabbath keepers." Sure, many of the traditions of the Celts were carried north to England as they travelled across Europe and Asia as the people migrated, but, sabbatarianism is not one of the traits that is ever mentioned. Of course, there is a reason for this in COG lore. It is not mentioned because Satan was seeking to destroy the true remnant with intense persecution and those evil Catholics stopped the truth from being published. Ho hum......
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The recent work of Andrew N. Dugger and Clarence O. Dodd, titled, A History of the True Church, and Richard C Nickels’ Six Papers on the History of the Church of God, have done much to preserve some of the earlier writings about these groups.
And Dugger and Dodd got it from none other than Ellen G. White.
The church history is a fraud. British Israelism is a fraud. Their prophecies are a fraud and have failed. None of them have anything.
It is time for them to seriously rethink their religion because it is rubbish.
I have to ask: If they rooted out all the known error disproved by science and history, what sort of shape would the religion take? What would it look like?
About the only thing they have of any substance is what Herbert Armstrong stole from the Church of God Seventh Day. Unfortunately, these people are too rich and increased in goods -- too modern -- to actually go to what they would derisively refer to as "Church Bible Camps" for an annual "retreat".
Most ACoGs don't even have church property and a church building. This means they have no presence in the community. The ACoGs themselves have no internal community. Unlike the CoG7, the church is not made up of intertwined families with histories which go back 100 years or more in some cases, since it's a relatively newly invented religion which the ACoGs have reinvented since 1986. They look nothing like the old WCG under Herbert Armstrong and they don't even preach the same gospel he did -- a positive gospel of "The Kingdom of God".
That is why they fail.
Relying on the same old lies to prop up their failing religion is like King Solomon speaking of a king becoming poor in his kingdom: Entropy has set in, the vines are obscuring the castle, the swords have rusted and the warriors wear thick glasses and have walkers to get around. Next stop: The grave.
The whole concept of the Waldensians keeping the Sabbath indeed come from Ellen G. White and the Seventh Day Adventist Church, as evidenced by The Great Controversy in Chapter 4, named, amazingly enough, "The Waldenses".
Note this paragraph from page 65:
The Waldenses were among the first of the peoples of Europe to obtain a translation of the Holy Scriptures. (See Appendix.) Hundreds of years before the Reformation they possessed the Bible in manuscript in their native tongue. They had the truth unadulterated, and this rendered them the special objects of hatred and persecution. They declared the Church of Rome to be the apostate Babylon of the Apocalypse, and at the peril of their lives they stood up to resist her corruptions. While, under the pressure of long-continued persecution, some compromised their faith, little by little yielding its distinctive principles, others held fast the truth. Through ages of darkness and apostasy there were Waldenses who denied the supremacy of Rome, who rejected image worship as idolatry, and who kept the true Sabbath. Under the fiercest tempests of opposition they maintained their faith. Though gashed by the Savoyard spear, and scorched by the Romish fagot, they stood unflinchingly for God's word and His honor.
It is a lie, shamelessly plagiarized by Dugger and Dodd, which was then even more shamelessly plagiarized by Herbert Armstrong without attribution in "A True History of The True Church".
The ACoGs have circled the wagons. They know that DNA refutes British Israelism, so now they appeal to a fabricated deception of an unbroken chain of history to establish the validity of their very existence. I have news for them: The Church of God Seventh Day minister I use as a consultant for building DNArefutesBI.com told me that the CoG7D do not claim such an unbroken history and do not use any of the EG White "Great Controversy" to establish legitimacy. CoG7D knows that the Waldensian Sabbath keeping tradition is a lie and for the sake of integrity will not use it.
The Armstrongist churches are breaking the 3rd Commandment:
Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
By having the name of God in the church title, they have taken the very name of God and lay claim to being His Church. By lying about their history, they are taking God's Name in vain. Let's be clear here: If truly there is a God and if He really has given this command, then all the Armstrongist Churches are in very real trouble because, God claims He will not hold them guiltless. Bearing false witness in this case is a little more serious than committing perjury in a court of law. It's going to be more than a fine and a prison sentence, if you get my drift.
No, we cannot be specific about the curse set by God against the Armstrongist Churches of God (assuming the atheists and agnostics maybe missed something -- not to say they have), but there's something in the writing of the Apostle Paul (which some question as to validity) about DEATH.
No one can say, "DIE, YOU SCUM, DIE!". That might be a bit presumptious.
So the only thing I might say under such circumstances is, "Judgment, if any, awaits".
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